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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

Dear MSc Finance Alumni,

At the end of November, we had our final exam boards meaning that we have now welcomed to the MSc Finance alumni community Grenoble intake 5 and London intake 4 students. Congratulations to these new graduates that have worked very hard on their dissertations over the last year.

In this Newsletter, you will find information about your program electives: we will run next April a new “Project Finance” elective.

You will also meet with two alumni (Florian from London 3 and Brjann from Gre-noble 4) that have accepted to tell us (almost) everything about their lives be-fore, during and after the MSc Finance. More Alumni interviews to follow in our next newsletters.

Finally, we will give you some information about the newly opened GEM finance community, publications from your professors at GGSB and the March 2013 Graduation ceremony and Gala.

This Newsletter is for you. So let us know what you think about it, information that you’d like to get etc…

I wish you a merry Christmas and a healthy and happy 2013 for you and your dear ones.

Kind regards,

Stephanie Boyer

CONTENT

Electives News - Alumni Success Stories - News from your Faculty

CIMA - GEM Finance Community - Graduation Ceremony

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

We will be delivering a new elective on Project Finance Project Finance for the first time in April 2013. It will

be taught in London by a project finance professional (CFA charter holder, currently working in Pro-ject Finance for Societe Generale) and students from all locations (Grenoble, Singapore and London) could attend. 30 out of our 100 students this year have decided to take it.

40 students have chosen the IT tools for market finance elective (delivered in Grenoble or in London) where they will study financial modelling using VBA and trading on the Bloomberg trading platform. The remaining 30 students have decided to follow the Financial Management elective (in Grenoble or Singapore) where they will develop short term cash management skills and advanced strategic con-trolling competences.

Project Finance is typically used to fund large greenfield projects such as building infrastructures in sectors including transport, energy, oil & gas, mining, telecommunications and public utilities. Un-like classic corporate lending where the ultimate credit rationale resides on the creditworthiness of the borrower, under Project Finance structures lenders have recourse primarily to the revenue stream of the project or asset they are financing, rather than to the balance sheet of the sponsor. This area of finance is developing at a fast pace as governmental funding of large infrastructure projects is re-ducing.

This 30 hours module covers the fundamentals of Project Finance including:

Overview of Project Finance: What it is Advantages and disadvantages Description of a typical transaction, including key parties

Understanding key project risks: Risk identification Mitigating and managing project risks

Evaluating / structuring a project: Overview of the credit process up to financial close Credit risk appraisal – general considerations Financial structure, financial ratios and sensitivity analysis

Financial documentation: Review of the main financial documents and their key terms.

This module is practical, based on concrete examples and cases. It offers a solid background to stu-dents considering a job in Project Finance, either in a firm, in a bank or in an infrastructure fund. This new elective will definitely enhance our student’s chances to work in Project Finance teams.

Electives News

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

One of our MSc Finance 7 Grenoble students, Anthony Abou Khater is our new program

ambassador and has started to interview our Alumni.

We are very pleased to share with you their experiences.

Florian PELLEGRINI

MSc Finance London 2009-2011

Tell us about yourself: career

and education background. If

you had the opportunity to

start over again, what would

you change?

Before joining the MSc in

Finance in London, I was part

o f the Grande Eco le

Programme. At that time,

I had a one-year experience in Capital

Markets as Derivatives Sales Assistant in

France and the United Kingdom at BNP

Paribas.

Right after the MSc, my previous team

offered me to come back for a 16-month

fixed-term contract (VIE). I received a

permanent job offer after 12 months and

joined the Rates Derivatives Sales team in

Milan in October 2011.

What are the possible next steps for you?

I cover a portfolio of Italian Large

Corporates and for this reason I am in touch

with corporate treasuries on a daily basis.

As I strongly believe that several years are

necessary to build strong relationships and

reach an appropriate level of

expertise in a

particular area, my short-term

objectives are basically learning

from the bank’s senior staff and

from my clients. I hope that

following this approach, I would

be able in the long term to jump

into a more general role within

the bank such as Senior Banker or to a

corporate treasury department.

What is it that attracts and excites you the

most about Finance? What inspires you to

continue working in it?

Finance provides an unlimited source of

information and there is always an exciting

topic to read about (in particular in the

current context). Working on strategic

transactions is also one of my main

motivations.

What do you do to keep your financial skills

up to date? What do you read? What are

your Financial Associations memberships?

Do you regularly attend seminars and

conferences?

I always try to have the meaning of every

financial word/ concept that I don’t know

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

explained by a specialist within the bank.

Market standards are continuously changing

and it is essential in this context to have an

updated knowledge. I participate to both

internal and external seminars as much as I

can.

Is there something that worries you about the

financial industry?

The financial industry has been severely hit

since 2007 but I am sure that we will see

better days in the near future.

What, in your opinion, are the skills required

to become a high performing finance

professional?

To me, commitment, curiosity and rigor are

the most important qualities to succeed in

finance.

What would be a typical working day for you?

A typical vacation day?

I start at 8.30am and read the most recent

research papers and top news. After that,

there is nothing typical as it mostly depends

on clients’ needs and upcoming meetings. It

is quite unusual to have lunch outside the

office as the desk must be covered at all time

should a client call to execute a transaction.

Usually, I leave the office at around 8pm.

What are your most memorable moments at

GGSB?

I really liked discovering trendy and original

places in London with my classmates and

gathering around a beer in the pub near the

school.

What advice do you have for the 2012-2013

MSc in Finance students?

Enjoy the student life and don’t hesitate to

widen your job search.

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

Brjánn BJARNASON

MSc Finance Grenoble 2009-2011

Tell us about yourself: career

and education background. If

you had the opportunity to

start over again, what would

y o u c h a n g e ?

I did my undergraduate

s tudies in industr ia l

engineering and I hold a BSc

from the University of

I c e l a n d . Du r i n g my

engineering studies, I worked part time as a

teacher in math and computers in my old high

school, I also spent two years teaching full

time after I graduated. I had always more

interest in finance and economics than

designing pipes and ventilation systems. I

therefore decided to try learning some

economics as I knew very little about finance. I

was then lucky as shortly afterwards I was

offered to join the Financial Advisory Team at

Deloitte. I spent one year with Deloitte and

subsequently went on to Glitnir Bank where I

was trusted with the responsibility of

implementing a Risk Management system for

their fund unit. I spent two eventful years at

Glitnir Bank through the Icelandic financial

crash. One year after the crash I decided to

move to Grenoble and finish my post-graduate

studies.

After my year in France I returned to Iceland

and took on the role of an account manager

and later Director in the Asset Management

department of Kaupthing hf. Kaupthing was

one of Iceland’s fallen banks so it is essentially

in wind-up proceedings.

Therefore you could say that my role is to

make myself redundant by selling the assets

I’m taking care of to maximize recovery for

creditors. It is however a very complicated

process which is anticipated to last for some

more years.

I don’t think I would change much in my career

to date. Even though my engineering studies

are not directly related to my current

profession it did provide me with excellent

analytical foundation.

What are the possible next steps for you?

As my current role is by nature not a future

role I am currently mostly focused on the

various projects I am dealing with from day to

day. I also aim to try to start the process of

passing the CFA tests in the year of 2013. My

short term objective is therefore to try and get

as much experience and contacts in my current

role to prepare myself for life after Kaupthing.

In the long-term I am aiming to establish

myself in an exciting company with good

growth potentials for both myself and the firm.

I am always open to new challenges and I

would consider most aspect of investment

banking, management consulting and every

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

other role offering me exciting challenges and

future prospects.

What is it that attracts and excites you the

most about Finance? What inspires you to

continue working in it?

I love the diversity finance offers. In my current

role I am using the various tools and methods I

learned at GGSB, but how those tools are

applied depends so heavily on the sector you

are working with. For example it is not enough

to know the formula to calculate WACC, you

have to have an opinion of so many other

things which depend on the sector and region

of the entity in question. Also, it is not a

problem to create a functional DCF model, but

the tricky part is to understand the core of the

underlying business to get a result that makes

sense. Without such insights the tools are

worthless.

In Finance you have to combine the use

capabilities from many different areas. To be

good at finance you really need to combine

your analytical skills with your understanding

of economics, accounting and in general the

mechanics of the global economy.

What do you do to keep your financial skills up

to date? What do you read? What are your

Financial Associations memberships? Do you

regularly attend seminars and conferences?

I use many of the skills I learned in my daily

work so to some extent I maintain and improve

my knowledge every day. I also do a lot of

reading and I am a fan of financial literature

and I always have at least one such book on

my nightstand. I also love to read good articles

from knowledgeable writers, unfortunately I

don’t have the time to read them all but two of

my favorites are John Mauldin and the writers

at GaveKal. To date I have not attended any

seminars after my graduation from GGSB but I

will definitely try to do so in the future. For the

moment I am aiming to start taking the CFA

degree in 2013.

Is there something that worries you about the

financial industry?

A lot of things worry me about the financial

industry and global economic climate. In my

opinion one of the core problems of the

financial industry is asymmetrical incentive

systems which are still widely in use. Such

system encourage employees in the finance

industry to take excessive risks as they stand

to gain a fortune if things go well, but lose

nothing if things go bad.

In general I am very much pro incentive

systems in the finance and other sectors, but

in my opinion it is essential that the interests

of all players are aligned.

What, in your opinion, are the skills required to

become a high performing finance

professional?

First and foremost good analytical skills are

needed as almost everything you do in finance

involves working with numbers.

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

Secondly I would say that you need to have

good communication skills and be able to work

easily with others as you are rarely working by

yourself on projects. Thirdly you have to have

ambition and drive as the finance industry is a

highly dynamic and competitive environment.

What would be a typical working day for you? A

typical vacation day?

My working day starts between 6 and 7 in the

morning when my children get up. I take them

to the kindergarten at 8 and then go to work.

My job is not a routine job so no two days are

the same. My job requires a fair bit of

travelling so those days are different.

Assuming I am at the office some days are

relaxed while others are very busy and require

working into the night. At my workplace we

have flexible working hours so if my schedule

allows for it I go for training at lunch time. I

usually leave the office around 5-6 in the

afternoon but I frequently take my laptop

home to complete some tasks or return to the

office after dinner with my family.

A day of vacation with my family is typically a

trip to a cottage or camping in the country side

in the Icelandic summer. I also do a lot of fly

fishing, but my children are still too young and

my wife is not interested so I do that with

friends.

What are your most memorable moments at

GGSB?

I had some great times at GGSB and met some

great people which I still regularly stay in touch

with. I have many great memories from time

spent with those friends from GGSB such as

parties, fondue nights and the gala to name a

few instances. I was also lucky to get to

encounter some very great and inspirational

professors which are memorable.

What advice do you have for the 2012-2013

MSc in Finance students?

Work Hard – Play Hard

Iceland, Reykjavik

December 2012

Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

Christophe BONNET

Prof. Christophe Bonnet, who initiated the MSc in Finance program at GGSB in 2006 and has taught the "LBO and VC" module since, recently pub-lished an academic paper on the co-investment of venture capitalists and business an-gels in young technology ven-tures. He also published his second book (in French): “Finance entrepreneuriale: fi-nancer la création et la crois-sance de l'entreprise inno-vante” (Economica, Paris, Oc-tober 2012, www.finance-

entrepreneuriale.com).

Based on a longitudinal case study, the paper investigates the relational dynamics of raising equity finance to sup-port strong growth in a tech-nology venture when business angels and venture capitalists coinvest simultaneously. It stresses the complementarity of these two investors types and analyses the roles they play during the stages of the fund raising process.

Business angels, given their previous entrepreneurial ex-per ience and industry knowledge, play a key role in detecting and translating the project potential. They also provide an active support to entrepreneurs during the post investment phase, helping to grow the young venture. Ven-ture capitalists play a domi-nant role during the deal structuring stage (negotiation

of price and contracts) as well as in monitoring the entrepre-neurs during the post-investment stage.

We conclude that first-time entrepreneurs may have an interest in addressing both business angels and formal venture capitalists when they raise equity finance.

(Bonnet C., Wirtz P., 2012. Raising Capital for Rapid Growth in Young Technology Ventures: When Business An-gels and Venture Capitalists Coinvest. Venture Capital. Vol. 14, issue 2-3: 91-110).

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

François DESMOULINS-LEBEAULT

In July 2012, François Desmoulins-Lebeault has published in the Journal of

Banking and Finance (vol.36, pp. 1987-1996) a paper titled “Non-Gaussian

Diversification, When Size Matters”.

What we show in the paper is that while classical portfolio theory informs in-

vestors that they should have a large number of assets in their portfolios in

order to diversify risk, the non-Gaussian features of the joint stock return distribution may not al-

low for this risk protection in times of crisis. Moreover, we demonstrate empirically that, if investors

are risk-averse and consider higher order moments, they have numerous incentives not to diversify

their portfolios fully. This is caused by the evolution of both large losses and asymmetry of returns

when the numbers of assets in a portfolio change.

News from your Faculty (1/2)

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

Isabelle CHABOUD

Audit Network

Over the years, I have man-

aged to convince some of my

students that audit or auditing

could be a good start for a ca-

reer. Now, I am proud to say

that they are successfully

working for one of the Big 4

not only in France (Paris, Lyon)

but also in other countries :

Luxemburg, Germany, Brazil,

Switzerland…and they are

HAPPY!

I keep in touch with most of

them and forward you once in

a while a mail when they are

looking for new candidates, or

I give you some advice or con-

tact names to help with inter-

views…

I maintain my contacts at the

Big 4 thanks to my previous

job as audit manager at PwC,

by attending invitation-only

technical training events ,

thanks to conferences (I re-

cently organized a conference

in Grenoble on Audit which

more than 120 students at-

tended), thanks to contacts

with Alumni…

I try to keep my competences

up to date to help you gain

knowledge on auditing

throughout my courses. I try

to be very active to maintain

good relationships with audit

firms, to understand their

needs.

But today, my priority is to

improve and broaden my net-

work even more to help new

students find jobs in this field.

Auditing firms seem to be very

satisfied with our students, so

please keep in touch and help

our future students by main-

taining a good and efficient

network . All your tips, advic-

es, contacts and testimonies

regarding audit would be very

welcome.

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

News from your Faculty (2/2)

CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting

An interesting information from Boris Feiguel (MSc Finance London alumni) : as soon as you have validated the taught part of the program, you can be exempted from four out of the five exams of the CIMA Certificate in Busi-

ness Accounting (the first level of the CIMA certification). The only exam to take to get the CIMA Certificate is C05 Fundamentals of Ethics, Corporate Governance & Business Law.

December 2012

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NEWSLETTER

GGSB MSc Finance

G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E

CongratulationsCongratulationsCongratulationsCongratulations

to the new Graduates from the MSc Finance intake 5 Grenoble and the MSc Finance intake 4 London. The Graduation Ceremony is going to take place on Saturday 16 March 2013: Mark it on your agenda!

Season’s Season’s

GreetingsGreetings

We wish you all Happy Holidays We wish you all Happy Holidays

GEM Finance Community :

New Community for passionate finance students !

GEM FinanceGEM FinanceGEM Finance… A community built BY YOU and FOR YOU … Prove your passion for finance!

The aim is to enable you to become stronger candidates for financial recruiters worldwide by openly shar-ing your experience (this is a private community accessible only to GEM students and alumni).

Join and participate in this community to:

• Federate a GEM finance spirit

• Find out what’s going on in the financial world • Share best practices • Share knowledge in the financial sector ( forums, surveys, best info sites)

• Build your network • Follow the recruiters challenges and participate in finance competitions

• Help build our notoriety with leading employers

The name of the game… TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More…

• You attended an assessment center – what were the questions you were asked?

• You are submitting an application online, find a buddy who is a native English speaker and have them review your application – help one another...

• Blog, share your passion ! • Team up and participate in financial competitions, make yourself a worthy job candidate!

Being an active member of this community can also be a definite addition to your CV!

http://graduatenetwork.grenoble-em.com/gemfinance

December 2012