M2 Finance | Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering course

The aim of the Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering programme is to train high-level professionals for a variety of positions in corporate finance departments, investment banks, management companies, private equity firms and the consulting professions.

After completing this Master's programme, students will be able to develop a strategic and operational vision of a company to ensure its development and long-term survival. This involves designing and drawing up all the financial packages, from the most conventional to the most innovative, that are essential to support internal and external growth. 

The course provides students with the financial, legal and tax skills needed to successfully carry out equity transactions and restructure financing, while integrating market logic, the international dimension and the complex environment in which companies operate.

Skills to be acquired at the end of the M2:

• Analysing and interpreting accounting and financial data under IFRS.

• Valuing a company with a view to a transaction.

• Implementing an internal and external growth strategy with associated financing.

• Setting up a performance monitoring and analysis system.

• Developing and implementing cash management and financial risk management on derivative markets. 

• Restructuring complex and innovative financing.

• setting up mergers and acquisitions

• Implementing private equity, LBO, MBO and structured finance transactions.

Students in the FEM program can also take the DESU Advanced Engineering and Corporate Finance, which, in addition to consolidating their knowledge of financial engineering and adding an international dimension, prepares them for AMF certification, as well as the BEST certification issued by the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce.

Examples of jobs on graduation:

• Cash manager (SNEF)
• Financial director (SAS Uni bateaux)
• Management controller (Total, CMA CGM, etc.)
• Financial analyst (Banque de France)
• Key account manager (LCL, CIC, BNP Paribas, Crédit Mutuel, etc.)
• Cost Engineering and Control (Airbus Helicopters)

Master 2 Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering (60 credits)

Semester 3 M2 Finance Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering (FEM) (30 credits)

• Financial and tax environment (6 credits)
  • European and international taxation
  • International accounting standards
• Management systems and performance analysis (9 credits)
  • Management control
  • Euro / foreign currency cash management
  • Financial diagnosis of consolidated accounts
• Corporate financial strategy (6 credits)
  • Investment and financing strategies
  • Company valuation and disposal processes
• Financial markets and asset management (9 credits)
  • Securities and hybrid securities
  • Portfolio management
  • Financial strategies on derivative markets
  • Ethics and financial regulation
  • Additional UE
• Introduction to econometrics (0 credits)

Semester 4 M2 Finance Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering (30 credits)

• Financial engineering (6 credits)
  • Financing and structured products
  • Capital restructuring and financial innovations
• Research paper / internship or work-study assignment / oral presentation (24 credits)
  • Research methodology
  • Internship or work-study assignment and research work
  • Oral presentation

Who can apply?

Priority access is afforded to M1 students from the Finance Master's programme. However, parallel entry to M2 may be considered for students who have completed 60 credits in a master’s in management, or in economics, or students from business or management schools.

Candidates must have a solid grounding in General Accounting, Financial Diagnostics, IT, Business Law and Taxatioń.

How do I apply?

Admission is based on an application studied by a pedagogical committee, which checks that the student has sufficient knowledge of the fundamental tools of law, economics and management, and that his/her level is compatible with the objectives of the course.

Apply at the time of admissions on the dedicated platform.

REGISTRATION REGIMES

• Initial training
• Continuing education
• Work-study training: work-study programs are available under apprenticeship contracts with CFA Epure Méditerranée or under professionalization contracts.

TEACHING 

This master’s programme is part of the AMSE University Research School (EUR), which includes nearly one hundred researchers from AMU, CNRS, EHESS, ECM and Sciences Po Aix.

The teaching team is also attached to AMU's CERGAM research centre. It is composed of lecturers in Management and Economics carrying out their research in the field of Finance, and lecturers who are professionals in positions of high responsibilitý within major groups (former Finance Director of ALSTOM, former Finance Director, and Director of Taxation of ONET, Finance and Strategy Director of the ORANGE group...).

For the most part, courses are taught in the form of lectures, alternating between theory, case studies and real-life case files (individual and group work). Some courses can be taught as flipped classes, with documents and videos posted online before each session.

INTERNSHIPS AND SUPERVISED PROJECTS

An end-of-year placement of 16 to 24 weeks is compulsory and must enable the student to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in all the modules. This placement gives rise to a report, which may be defended in the presence of the company tutor and the Master's supervisor. Writing an internship or assignment report and defending it validates some of the skills, which are also assessed during a major oral examination at the end of the Master's before a panel comprised of the course leader and one or more lecturers. 

An end-of-studies project common to all courses is defended before a jury of academics and professionals. It contributes to the validation of skills in the same way as the internship or assignment report.