Financial skills are critical for any executives who are directly or indirectly involved in the decision making process within an organization. Whatever investment you are doing – be it a wind farm, an airplane, an IT system, or anything else – you need financial skills to evaluate it.

Amsterdam Institute of Finance offers two interactive, highly-paced programs in business valuation: the 3-day Valuation and the 4-day Advanced Valuation.

The Valuation program provides the participants with an understanding of the key valuation concepts:

  • Understanding the difference between the book value and the market value;
  • Free Cash Flows: crucial before making any acquisition decisions;
  • How to make investment decisions that enhance shareholder value;
  • Importance of future cash flows;
  • Net Present Value (NPV);
  • The multiples method.

During the program, the concepts are applied into practical business cases involving capital budgeting: deciding whether long-term investments, such as new equipment or facilities, are worthwhile.

Past participants in Valuation have come from a variety of backgrounds, including legal, finance, general management, and mergers & acquisitions.

The field of valuation is full of short-cuts which may inadvertently result in damaging investment decisions. It is tempting to slip into simple mechanical processes without analyzing why you are doing things in a certain way. In the Advanced Valuation program, participants with experience in valuation explore the major elements of discounted cash flow valuation. They learn to:

  • Understand the “why we do it that way” behind valuation concepts they practice daily;
  • Distinguish value creation from value destruction;
  • Differentiate between long-term value-creating strategies and short-term indicators, such as share price, earnings per share, market share, and revenue growth;  
  • Conduct a data-driven, theoretically correct valuation;
  • Handle cross-border, emerging market, and other complicated valuations;
  • Question common practices and identify common mistakes and misunderstandings.

Participants in the Advanced Valuation program should already be familiar with valuation concepts such as Free Cash Flows, the costs of capital, and the CAPM. As a rule of thumb we expect the participants to have carried out valuations for at least a year before taking the program. Past participants have included associates, directors, investment managers, CFOs, CEOs, and M&A professionals, among others.

Read more
> The art and science of valuation: Key insights in how to determine value with Matti Suominen
> Everything is hard to value with Kevin Kaiser
> Value versus price podcast with Kevin Kaiser