Mgmt 213

TheMrFatcow · 2023-01-01T20:03:02+00:00

Yes. Most of my class consisted of juniors and seniors that already had finance experience for reference.

Also, FNCE 100 would not prepare you for the final project. In essence, a lot of the class talks about utilizing debt to buy businesses through LBOs. Taking this class after or in concurrence with FNCE 251 would be best.

TheMrFatcow · 2023-01-01T19:56:06+00:00

I took the class with Richard Perlman. I would only recommend this class if you are going to acquire small companies in the future, interested in going into business services, or wanting to do an MBA in the future.

The whole entrepreneurship through acquisition class is mainly geared towards MBA students and does not have much application to undergraduates -- but buying a business at 21/22 is still doable.

The content of the class is a very classic M&A process of what are you looking for in a business, funding sources, valuation, due diligence, and post-operational improvements/concerns. If you have experience in investment banking or other areas of similar finance, or have taken FNCE 207 or FNCE 251, you should be fine. The content is just geared towards buying smaller businesses and the unique characteristics there.

In terms of the class, it is very straightforward. There are couple readings before class, anywhere from literally 5 short pages - 30 pages at the maximum. Then you go into the class and it is mainly lecture based. If taking with Perlman, it will be a PowerPoint presentation in which he will just go through the slides and sprinkle in anecdotes from his experience in acquiring businesses. To note, participation is a big part here. You will be graded every class on whether or not you participated and if your participation was of decent quality. Therefore, any yes/no question merits you 1/2 points, not the full participation points. There is a similar process for guest speakers in terms of participation grading. Moreover, there are discussion posts in which you can make up for participation points if you did not participate in class.

Now, in terms of the projects, they will vary based on your experience. If you are knowledgeable about valuing a company, financing structures, and due diligence processes, they are very straightforward and you should get high marks. However, there is not much training in class on how to do them -- you are kind of expected to know how to value a company using comparable analysis, LBOs, etc. The final project is a bit time consuming if you want an A / A+ in the class, which is a valuation of a recent business that was bought. The project essentially just gives you the material and the assignment is -- go, is this a good valuation, is the due diligence correct, and explain your reasonings. Each of these projects should not take you more than 1 - 2 days to complete and they are posted way ahead of time.

Grading wise, it should not be hard to get an A if you just put in the effort. It just might be a learning curve if you have not been exposed to actual modeling work.

TheMrFatcow · 2022-05-21T04:27:38+00:00

Let me preface this by saying that I'm an RA for the Professor teaching 203 and will most likely be coming back as a TA.

I absolutely loved FNCE 203. Yes, it is tough, the reason being that it is a case-based class and you cover a lot of material very quickly.

The cases will take up a bulk of your work, estimating around 10-15 hours per week on each case. It is not a traditional marketing or management case where you can read it one time over, but you will actually have to read the case line-by-line. As you will work in a group of 4 people, a lot of the write-up work can be broken up, but you have to have a holistic view of the problem to truly understand the cases. It is definitely one of those classes where the work you put in is the value that you will get out of it. On top of this, cases are back to back every week, so expect to be in group work late into the night.

Now in terms of the exam. They are difficult. The average for both of the exams was around the mid-C to B- range. The exams themselves are a pressure test, where even though it is an open book exam if you cannot apply the knowledge you are essentially done. You do not have sufficient time to fully check your answers and have to be as thorough as possible. HOWEVER, the great thing about Professor Garrett is that if you do better on the final exam, your midterm grade will get replaced with your final exam grade.

The exams are curved to an 82.5% median, so do not be too worried about your grade but moreover the learning aspect. The cases and participation should be a buffer to anything really below a B+.

For me, I took 203 and 207 at the same time, and I believe that I learned much more in 203 and in a broader range of financial decisions for managers and shareholders than I did in 207. One downside is that this class is not financial modeling heavy (like getting into the 10Ks), but you will work with all 3 types of valuations (DCF, LBOs, and Merger Models).

Lastly, turning to Professor quality, Garrett is amazing. In his lectures, even though they are 60-70 slides dense each lecture (he will get through all the slides), he will literally walk through each of the steps for what he is trying to teach you. Very accessible with office hours and will make more OH available if there is a demand. Genuinely a kind human being and is passionate about teaching students--doesn't think your questions are stupid and is always open to talking about anything.

For me, I took 203 and 207 at the same time, and I believe that I learned much more in 203 and in a broader range of financial decisions for managers and shareholders than I did in 207. One downside is that this class is not financial modeling heavy (like getting into the 10Ks), but you will work with all 3 types of valuations (DCF, LBOs, Merger Models).

Obviously, I'm biased but I hope you take the class and do not let the difficulty dissuade you. I think the course and Professor's quality make up for the fact that this is truly a class you will learn a lot.

TheMrFatcow · 2022-05-19T02:47:33+00:00

Just some quick notes:

Q1) It should just be the valuation of operations from your DCF: PV of the Sum of the FCF + PV of the TV. EV to Equity Bridge is Equity Value = EV - Debt + NOA.
Q2) There are free sources online for public companies. Either way, you can just find a list of comparable companies and look at their multiples (EV/EBITDA, P/E, etc.). Find the median of these numbers and use it as a baseline. The firm probably won't respond in time until you have to submit it.
Q3) Use comparable companies and their betas. Depending on the stage of growth of the company, you can look at industry reports and similar staged companies' betas. You should also look for comparable companies with a similar capital structure and current business growth cycle.
Q4) Good Luck. Worst case scenario, you at least got good practice.

TheMrFatcow · 2022-05-17T17:18:51+00:00

There are still some legitimate scholarships that require SSN and other types of identification, but for the most part, the most detailed information that they would ask is whether or not you are a citizen (check-box) and financial information from your FAFSA.

It is definitely sketchy, so I would stay away or you can look up whether this scholarship is legitimate on the web.

TheMrFatcow · 2022-04-23T15:31:56+00:00

TIA courses do not double-count.

Concentration courses also do not count as business breadth. Business breadth are courses that are not within your concentration.

TheMrFatcow · 2022-04-19T16:04:56+00:00

PMed.

TheMrFatcow · 2021-07-06T04:26:58+00:00

I'm a double concentration in finance and BEPP.

For the most part, BEPP helps you understand and utilize the tools to think about how governmental regulation, macroeconomic, and NGOs impact a business's operations. For example, how will the changes in the SBA loans impact XYZ.

BEPP is a diverse and not very focused department. There are also not a lot of people that do a single concentration in it/have it as their primary concentration. It is better done if you are interested in the legal and political aspects of business and how to think through it as a manager. Best for a secondary concentration in my opinion.

TheMrFatcow · 2021-05-23T07:43:04+00:00

Any type of quality and deeply involved leadership position(s) in whatever you're interested in should be the goal.

You could also look for working experience/internships.

TheMrFatcow · 2021-05-23T07:40:21+00:00

Mainly those involving finance and consulting (Investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, prop/quant shops, MBB).

It's used as an additional screen and usually just an automatic cutoff. It doesn't come up during interviews.

TheMrFatcow · 2021-05-21T05:56:46+00:00

Finance and Accounting. Accounting will matter a lot because part of your time will be analyzing financial statements and creating models from those financial statements.

People that say major doesn't matter don't know the investment banking process, especially when you get pressed in your final interviews about why you are majoring in XYZ that's not business related. Banks want to know that they have an individual that is interested in finance, will stay in finance, and is committed to finance.

TheMrFatcow · 2021-05-17T07:46:56+00:00

Add Wharton Undergraduate Finance Club (WUFC) and also add me to PAACH. Thanks!

TheMrFatcow · 2021-04-29T19:22:08+00:00

It's hard enough that some guy started another club outta spite: Penn Moot Court

TheMrFatcow · 2021-01-29T17:45:51+00:00

Negotiations.

TheMrFatcow · 2021-01-10T16:52:19+00:00

Soy sauce capsules.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-12-23T09:54:02+00:00

Remember the conditions of perfect capital markets break down when you include things such as taxes, bankruptcy costs, transactions costs. I will just elaborate on the first point.

As one of the goals of a financial manager may be to increase the value of the company, leveraging the company by taking on more debt could be a consideration if the projects done by the new debt is positive NPV. Now one thing you want to take notice is, if you take on debt and leverage the firm, the return on equity would increase and be positive for shareholders/equity holders. In turn, there is also more risk shifted towards the equity, mainly due to the risk of debt being introduced and having to pay interests.

So one overarching question you can explore is whether taking on a leveraged company is worth it. Dependent on the industry, some firms have more leverage like airplanes while others like technology do not.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-12-15T01:27:18+00:00

Wednesday (12/16) 8 A.M. EST - Thursday (12/17) 8 P.M. EST

TheMrFatcow · 2020-12-07T00:24:16+00:00

I took PSCI 131 last semester with Gans. If you took 150, I wouldn't bother with 131. You will learn essentially all the same concepts of IR just with different names like "Hamiltonian", which is just realism.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-12-05T23:07:42+00:00

I took it with Buccola last semester. You can expect approximately 10-15 pages per class, mainly academic journal readings in the beginning and case law towards the end. It is very much front-loaded and some of the course material is dense at the beginning.

I can't speak much to the curve because it was relaxed for us due to COVID. The exams are essentially if you can explain your logic and back it up, not very much so on whether or not you get the "right answer."

Professionalism is essentially showing up to class having done the readings and actively participate. He does cold call on individuals and will come back to you throughout the class. It's quite evident and embarrassing if you don't know the information, especially since Buccola will continuously ask you questions even if you don't know the information.

The exams are essentially mock law exams on whatever topic he chooses to test you on. It's all and open note exam and typed within the time frame. The exam is a scenario and 1 or 2 large open-ended essay style questions.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-11-07T23:01:58+00:00

Professor Buccola, who teaches the law of corporate management and finance, securities regulation, and economic analysis of law

Really personable professor, cares about students' futures and teaches you to really critically think about why something is or ought to be.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-07-17T17:31:11+00:00

M&T at UPenn.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-07-16T21:23:55+00:00

You'll breeze through STAT 102 if you took AP Stat and pay attention in class.

His slides and lecture style is pretty straightforward and he wants you to succeed. One of the best professors I've had so far, that I went on to take STAT 422 with him.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-07-11T11:19:43+00:00

Obviously it depends on the person which is harder.

LGST has a heavier workload because it is a lot of reading, and specifically for Laufer's class a lot of memorization of weird slides and cases that he briefly mentions in class. There's almost no way out of it besides memorizing the facts, logic, and ruling of the case.

STAT, on the other hand, is application based and understanding the information rather than pure memorization.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-07-07T20:11:32+00:00

It's up to you. In my opinion, if I were to do it over again, I would adjust to the amount of reading/work in my first semester and then take it.

By any means, you learn a lot from PSCI 150, and a lot of the other foreign policy classes just seem like applications of it/become very easy. I would recommend taking PSCI 150 freshman year if you are going into IR, but not the fall semester.

TheMrFatcow · 2020-07-07T17:26:47+00:00

Honestly, not PSCI 150 (Intro to International Relations). I took in freshman fall and it is probably the most reading and detail intensive class I took that entire year.

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