Cases in International Accounting

Participation Prerequisites

International Accounting (Internationale Rechnungslegung; Semester 4)
Foundations of Financial Accounting (Grundlagen des Externen Rechnungswesens; Semester 1)
Financial Statements (Jahresabschluss; Semester 1)
Financial Statement Analysis (Jahresabschlussanalyse; Semester 2)

Course Content

The course "Cases in International Accounting" 

is a case study seminar that starts where "International Accounting" left off. All cases are related to practical reporting issues in the PRIVATE EQUITY sector. 

After learning, in "International Accounting", about the most important IFRS issues facing companies and firms and auditors in practice, in this course you will be working in teams to gain a closer and more detailed understanding of selected topics and their application problems, incentive effects, and earnings management potential in practice. Instead of "consuming" ready-made case studies with fixed solutions, you will be prepare and analysis of your own case study based on real or fictitious companies in the context of the private equity industry. A specific focus will be on the application of IFRS accounting from the perspective of private equity owned companies and the application of IFRS accounting for private equity funds. 

Furthermore a special focus will be given to an introduction into the relationship of financial reporting and the upcoming “non financial” reporting world. Overall the key learning objective of this course is not only to analyzing reporting issues from an analytical, empirical and practical perspective but also to develop and enhancing communication skills with regard to nowadays complexities in corporate reporting.

Intended Learning Outcomes and Competencies

Accounting theory, Valuation, Agency theory

Form of Examination

70% case study write-up;
20% individual presentation of case study + participation in discussion of other group presentations;
10% peer evaluation sheet evaluating (confidentially) your group members

Literature

• Palepu/Healy/Bernard/Peek, Business Analysis and Valuation (IFRS edition), 6. Aufl., 2022
• Pellens/Fülbier/Gassen/Sellhorn, Internationale Rechnungslegung, 11. Aufl., Stuttgart 2021

Secondary literature:

Announced in class