Date: 3/11/2019
Event start time: 12:00 AM
Event end time: 5:00 PM
Category: Seminar
Price: Members - $1,699; Non-Members $2,199
Register

Download program brochure (pdf)

This 2-day program is designed to help you understand the essentials of finance that you’ll need to communicate your company’s financial story effectively. We cover the big picture, shareholder value, accounting, corporate finance and company valuation - all in an accessible way for IR specialists and corporate communicators.

Learn through engaging, interactive case studies from a range of sectors and practical exercises designd to simulate real life scenarios.

IRC® credential holders can earn up to 6 professional development units (PDUs). More information is available at www.niri.org/certification.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

  • Investor Relations executives with little to no finance experience
  • Anyone working in a communications role who would like to understand finance from a communications perspective
  • Newcomers to IR and corporate communications in a listed company environment

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Develop your financial fluency and be able to talk the language of senior management
  • Gain a comprehensive understanding of corporate finance and accounting concepts
  • Understand how to use numbers and KPIs to tell your financial story
  • Learn to communicate in a way that helps your company achieve fair value

COURSE MODULES

The Big Picture
  • Capital markets overview
  • The perspectives of financial audiences
  • Sell-side analysts and the role of guidance  
Corporate Finance Essentials
  • Creating shareholder value - what it really means
  • The link to return on capital
  • Metrics for executive compensation
  • Characteristics of debt and equity funding
  • Cost of capital, the capital mix and leverage
  • Changing the capital structure
  • Dividend and buyback policy
Accounting Essentials
  • The key financial statements and how they fit together
  • The FinanceTalking accounting board game
  • The difference between profits and cash
  • Depreciation, amortization and EBITDA
  • Goodwill and impairment
  • Using adjusted/non-GAAP numbers
  • Annual reports & earnings releases - how analysts, investors and journalists use your financial information
Analyzing Financial Information
  • Reviewing the balance shee
  • Leverage – how high should it be?
  • Calculating and interpreting leverage ratios
  • Capex and working capital management
  • Communicating balance sheet strength
  • Views of ratings agencies and other credit analysts
Analyzing Financial Information Cont'd
  • Income statement headline numbers
  • Analysing profitability and asking questions
  • Establishing a trend - how analysts adjust your numbers
  • Constant currency and other non-GAAP measures
  • Growth and margins, operational leverage
  • Earnings per share and dividends
  • How the numbers tell the story
  • Building a story using key performance indicators
  • Media and analysts conference case studies
Valuation
  • Context for investment decision-making (economics)
  • Evaluating growth potential
  • Valuation basics – discounted cash flow techniques
  • Analysts’ models – overview of how they work
  • The importance of managing expectations
  • Using communications to influence DCF valuation
  • Valuing a company using multiples
  • What might change a multiple?
  • Using communications to influence multiples
How to Tell Your Investment Story
  • Telling the story in terms of what really matters
Summary & Conclusion
  • Where to go from here

 


Speaker(s):

Miranda Lane

Miranda Lane

Managing Director, FinanceTalking, Ltd.

Miranda has 16 years’ experience of teaching finance to people who do not have a financial background.  This and her broad City experience in investment banking and financial communications enable her to explain complex subjects in simple ways.
  • Qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1985 with Touche Ross in London
  • Worked for investment bank, Morgan Grenfell, analysing companies
  • Financial PR and Investor Relations in two leading consultancies
  • Gained invaluable experience freelancing for a City training company, teaching analysis of financial statements and equity analysis
  • Over the last 16 years, Miranda has taught people from well over 50% of the FTSE100 companies, and most of the leading financial PR consultancies in the UK as well as companies from continental Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine.
Miranda founded FinanceTalking to provide the best financial training to the corporate communications world.  She designs and teaches highly relevant, practical courses for FinanceTalking and for companies' in-house training programmes.