Includes bibliographical references and index.

The finance function -- Capital markets, market efficiency and ratio analysis -- Short-term finance and working capital management -- Long-term finance : equity finance -- Long-term finance : debt finance, hybrid -- Finance and leasing -- An overview of investment appraisal methods -- Investment appraisal : applications and risk -- Portfolio theory and the capital asset pricing model -- The cost of capital and capital structure -- Dividend policy -- Mergers and takeovers -- Risk management.

"Corporate finance is concerned with the financing and investment decisions made by the management of companies in pursuit of corporate goals. As a subject, corporate finance has a theoretical base which has evolved over many years and which continues to evolve as we write. It has a practical side too, concerned with the study of how companies actually make financing and investment decisions, and theory and practice can sometimes appear to be at odds with each other. The fundamental problem facing financial managers is how to secure the greatest possible return in exchange for accepting the smallest amount of risk. This necessarily requires that financial managers have available to them (and are able to use) a range of appropriate tools and techniques. These will help them to value the decision options open to them and to assess the risk of those options. The value of an option depends on the extent to which it contributes towards the achievement of corporate goals. In corporate finance, the fundamental goal is usually taken to be to increase the wealth of shareholders. The aim of this book The aim of this book is to provide an introduction to the core concepts and key topic areas of corporate finance in an approachable, 'user-friendly' style. Many texts on corporate finance adopt a theory-based or mathematical approach that is not appropriate for those coming to the subject for the first time or want to place the concepts in a real world context. This book covers the core concepts and key topic areas without burdening the reader with what we see as unnecessary detail or too heavy a dose of theory"--