Mergers & Acquisitions

On-Campus:  June 30 - July 11 Summer 2025

Applications are OPEN for Summer 2025.

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• The course is geared toward students who have had exposure to accounting, corporate finance and economics, or current and former HEC Paris Summer School students who have taken the Summer Program on Corporate Finance or Investment Banking and International Finance. 
• Created and taught by leading HEC Paris Professors
• Courses based on recent, real-life case studies
• Leading guest speakers during case-study discussions
• Earn an HEC Paris Certificate following successful completion of the program.
• HEC Paris expertise in Finance: award-winning programs, number one Masters in Finance Pre-experience 2023 (QS Ranking)

This intensive summer program will allow participants to master the key Mergers and Acquisitions practices. Learnings will range from how to originate a deal, structure it, and complete its final execution. Following this intensive program, students will understand how an M&A deal can create value for shareholders and for firms.

Through case studies as well as business games, students will learn how to negotiate a valuation from the position of “expert”, “buyer” or “seller”. The following primary techniques will be studied: share exchanges, acquisitions financing and take-over defences. Mergers and Acquisitions case studies provide students with expertise based on recent, real life international transactions, as all scenarios involve situations that professors have handled during their respective careers in Investment Banking.

Upon completion of this intensive program, students will be able to do the following:

• Understand the key variables involved in M&A decisions
• Analyze target selection and analysis 
• Optimize deal financing and capital structure
• Decide between cash and share payment
• Negotiate the most relevant premium to optimize Synergies’ value creation
• Build-up a comprehensive and ready-to-use M&A model
• Master due diligence processes, Mergers and Acquisitions techniques
• Understand the concept of signalling theories, valuation of minorities, illiquidity impact, holding structure
• Structure a deal properly in terms of tax impact, including acquisitions versus asset buying
• Become familiar with takeover defenses, leveraged buyouts, mezzanine debts, earn out, special M&A techniques: carve-out, contingency value rights

This advanced program is designed for students or recent graduates who already have solid fundamental and technical knowledge in Finance and want to gain technicality and expertise. It is recommended that participants have a strong academic background in Accounting, Corporate Finance, or Economics. 

Participants can also be considered eligible if they have attended in one of the following HEC Paris Summer School Programs:

‐ Corporate Finance or
‐ Investment Banking and International Finance 
 

Participants will be evaluated based on the following:

• final exam
• team business projects

Participants who successfully complete the program will earn 5 ECTS credits.  

All students who are seeking credit are encouraged to consult their home academic institution to validate credit transfer.