Welcome to FIL 440 - Financial
Management
Dr. Kevin Ahlgrim
Email: kahlgrim@ilstu.edu
Office: 340 COB, Office Hours: MW 2-3:15, W 5-6, or by appointment
Office Phone: 438-2727, Cell Phone: 830-4304
May 3
Last minute office hours will be right before the exam on Wednesday, May 9th, from 2-5:30. If you can't make this time, or would like to see me on another day, please send me an e-mail to schedule an appointment.
April 25
Here are some questions to address for the MCI case analysis:
What message is MCI trying to send to the financial markets?
Calculate WACC before and after the recapitalization.
What are other factors MCI should consider? (HINT: take a look at the capital structure theory and interpret the market reaction based on each of the issues.)
Determine whether they should issue an additional $2 billion in debt.
Don't worry about the EPS projections - just skip this part of the case.
April 10
I've posted solutions to the suggested problems for the rest of the semester. Check under assignments. I've printed out the unedited version of the instructor's manual - hopefully it is readable and there are no errors.
March 22
Please take the time to fill out the informal feedback form for the course. There's no reason to put your name on it, but your input is very valuable. If you want it to remain anonymous, feel free to send it to me through campus mail. Thanks!
March 2
Based on questions from students, I've posted the text's solutions to the problems I've suggested. NOTE: these are the text solutions and are not edited by me.
February 22
Under assignments, I've posted some information about case analysis including some guidelines and a sample report based on the Buffett case. Note that the first case (financial detective) is very different so the format may not apply - there isn't a single unifying issue for the financial detective case. Therefore, don't worry about sticking to the format for the first case. Finally, here's my calculations from the Buffett case.
February 12
As we get closer to the midterm exam on March 7, you might start preparing a sheet of notes for the exam. When taking the exam, you will be allowed to have one regular sheet of paper (8.5 inch by 11 inch) on which you can write anything you want - formulas, definitions, examples, graphs.... whatever.
February 7
I've gotten a few questions about the rapidly approaching midterm exam. To give you an idea of the format and level of detail, I've posted a sample midterm exam under assignments.
January 29
I've created a new page (assignments) for posting the answers to the mini-case questions at the back of each chapter. In general, I will cover these mini-cases in class.
Also, I mentioned that I'd post the amortization schedule excel file if you'd like to play around with mortgage payments and loans.
January 24
On January 24th, I passed out a CD that includes audio lectures for some material. To find the presentations, use your browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer) to open a file from the CD called "index". It will spell out dates for listening to the lectures and links to the files. I've also posted suggested timing on the schedule page of the course web site.
One of the problems mentioned in the past has been the volume of my voice on these presentations. If you have problems with the volume, it may help to adjust some of the volume settings. Specifically, on the volume control, you might have to increase the "Wave" volume. If you have any difficulties at all with the CD, please let me know.
January 17
Welcome to FIL 440! This website will be used to post announcements made in class and distribute lecture notes. Check the schedule to see which topics are covered each week. Also on the schedule, please download the notes before coming to class each week.
If you missed the first day of class, please download the course syllabus. I also covered Chapter 1 - here are the notes.
The subject of week two (January 24) is time value of money. For these problems we will use financial calculators, so try to get your calculator and bring it with you next week (I will be using the TI BAII-Plus and highly recommend that calculator). Please download the notes on the course schedule page (also see link above) before coming to class.
Please go to the Darden Publishing website and purchase 5 cases that we'll be covering in the course. NOTE: I've heard that the default shipping option is overnight ($$$). Standard shipping is fine unless you have an extra $15-20 in your pocket to burn and want to start these cases weeks before the rest of us! Here are the cases to get: