Finance
Design the financing structure
When a growth investment needs funding, compute the cost of capital, then build a structure that holds using the WACC, the tax shield, the debt level and the signal the choice sends.
Your learning route
The program order
Complete the programs in order to finish the route. Each one brings short lessons, applied practice and a realistic business case together.
Plus and Pro members can create a verifiable Stratify certificate when the route is complete.
- Program 01
Calculate the cost of capital
Foundational: separate the cost of capital from the price your treasurer pays for money, and read it as the return investors could earn on a fairly priced alternative at the same risk. By the end of this program you can split time value from the risk premium, work through the CAPM's security market line, build a weighted average of the costs of debt and equity on market weights, and say whether a rate belongs against pretax or after-tax cash flows.
- What the cost of capital is
Apply it: Closing case: defend the discount rate
4 lessons · ≈3 hours
- Program 02
Defend the investment hurdle with the WACC
Intermediate: estimate market-value weights, an after-tax cost of debt and a cost of equity built on a beta that matches the target debt ratio, then combine them into one hurdle rate. By the end of this program you can compute a WACC from a company's own market data, unlever and re-lever an equity beta when the target capital structure changes, and state the assumptions and the limits that travel with the rate you put in front of a committee.
- Weight by market value
Apply it: Closing case: defend the hurdle rate
4 lessons · ≈3 hours
- Program 03
Choosing financing with capital structure theory
Advanced: work through what Modigliani and Miller establish about the financing mix, then what each relaxed condition adds to the decision: the interest tax shield, the costs of financial distress, agency costs, and the information gap behind pecking-order financing and signaling. By the end of this program you can price a tax shield for the right horizon, set it against expected distress costs, read what a debt or equity announcement tells the market, and defend a capital structure that leaves room to move.
- How debt financing reallocates risk
Apply it: Closing case: steer the financing committee
4 lessons · ≈4 hours