Postgraduate - UnitAFF5580 - Mergers and acquisitions

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

To find units available for enrolment in the current year, you must make sure you use the indexes and browse unit tool in the current edition of the Handbook.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Business and Economics
Organisational Unit	Department of Accounting and Finance
Offered	Caulfield Summer semester A 2013 (On-campus block of classes)
Coordinator(s)	Mr Roger Love

Quota applies

This unit has an enrolment quota of 40.

Synopsis

This unit examines the concept of mergers and acquisitions from two perspectives - the relevant areas of finance and the basic taxation, accounting and legal issues. The aim is to provide students with a practical understanding of this major corporate strategy.
The finance issues will involve an examination of basic theory and empirical findings associated with mergers and acquisitions, the valuation of firms under a range of techniques, the structuring of bids from a financing perspective and defensive strategies.
The taxation, accounting and legal issues include a review of the taxation effects from the position of both the bidder and the target's shareholders, the legal responsibilities of the Board and senior management of both target and bidder companies, the role of the Takeover Panel in relation to both defensive and negotiating strategies, the use of independent experts, the application of the Trade Practices Act and the effect of the accounting asset impairment tests,

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

Define the purposes and scope of mergers and acquisitions in terms of the legal and economic consequences
Evaluate the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the participating parties
Describe the differences between mergers, hostile acquisitions and private equity involvement
Communicate clearly and in an organised manner the findings from both case studies and academic studies on the issues raised in the preceding goals.
Critically analyse the strategies and financial worth of a nominated M & A corporate example
Apply critical thinking, problem solving and presentation skills to individual and/or group activities dealing with mergers and acquisitions and demonstrate in an individual summative assessment task the acquisition of a comprehensive understanding of the topics covered in AFF5580.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Christine Brown

Contact hours

3 hours per week

Co-requisites

Student must be enrolled in 3818, 4412, 3850 or by permission of the Chief Examiner