Corporate Finance and Accounting

EamoS

Not sure if this is the right forum but here it goes,

Basically I want to work in corporate finance. I've just finished a masters in finance. My undergrad was Property Economics. The impression I'm getting however is that to work in corporate finance you need a strong background in accounting, which I don't really have.

Now although I enjoy financial and management accounting and looking through company accounts trying to get a bigger picture etc., I would hate to be a straight up accountant just drawing up accounts.

I guess what I'm saying is I'm not interested in accountng per sè, but it's relevance to corporate finance.

So basically I'm asking for some help in determining what my options are? Is it really that important to hav a strong accounting background to work in corporate finance, especially given I dont have a natural desire to be an accounatnt? What type of courses/qualifications could I do pursue to attain a stronger accounting background? Will the accounting part of the CFA's give me rnough accounting for a corporate finance position?

Thanks in advance.

I have worked in Corporate Finance for a large property developers, and tbh my definition of 'strong accounting background' would be the ability to read and undertand a P&L and Balance Sheet.

Don't worry, you won't be doing T-accounts or getting swamped in IFRS's. Corporate Finance is more about being able to get the job done quickly, sometimes under serious time pressure. Proficiency in Excel would be an essential as well.

LightningBolt

I'd hazard a guess that the main carry over between the two would be if you were carrying out an appraisal on an investment target and you had to go through the financial statements. It would help obviously to have some knowledge in that area so you could pick out outstanding loans and liabilities, do some due diligence work etc. It's really not that hard to gain an understanding of in my opinion and if you were working in a finance house they'd have plenty of people involved in such a project that there'd be no shortage of skill sets within the team.

Re-read your post and see you're looking to do the CFA. I've had a quick look and here's what you'll study:

IV. Financial Reporting and Analysis
A. Financial Reporting System (IFRS and GAAP)
B. Principal Financial Statements
C. Financial Reporting Quality
D. Analysis of Inventories
E. Analysis of Long-Lived Assets
F. Analysis of Taxes
G. Analysis of Debt
H. Analysis of Off-Balance-Sheet Assets and Liabilities
I. Analysis of Pensions, Stock Compensation, and Other Employee Benefits
J. Analysis of Inter-Corporate Investments
K. Analysis of Business Combinations
L. Analysis of Global Operations
M. Ratio and Financial Analysis

Looking at that outline there the CFA course more than covers you for whatever role you'd be looking to do in my opinion.

Slippers

Bank of Ireland's IBI Corporate Finance looks like number one for corporate finance in Ireland.
These are the education sections of the 11 bios on their site:


Róisín Brennan, BCL, FCA, MSI
Executive Chairman

Róisín is a first class honours law graduate and subsequently qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen. She is also a member of the Securities and Investment Institute.


Tom Godfrey, BComm, MBA, FSI
Joint Managing Director

He is a fellow of the Securities and Investment Institute and graduated with first class honours BComm and MBA degrees from University College Dublin.


Ted Webb, BComm, FCA
Joint Managing Director

Ted graduated with a degree in commerce from University College Galway. Having qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, Ted worked with KPMG in Toronto and London in a number of senior roles.


Mark Spain, BComm, FCA, AITI
Director

He graduated with a first class honours degree in commerce from University College Dublin and subsequently qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, before joining IBI.


Leo Casey, BComm, MAcc, FCA
Director

Leo graduated with a first class honours degree in commerce and a Masters of Accounting degree from University College Dublin and then qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers.


John Tuite, BComm, MBA
Director

He graduated with first class honours commerce and MBA degrees from University College Dublin. Prior to joining IBI, he spent seven years working as a foreign exchange dealer in Dublin and New York with Bank of Ireland Group Treasury.


Sean Duffy, BSc, DPA, FCA
Director

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Post-graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting from Queen's University, Belfast and then qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG.


Brian Farrell, BBLS, MAcc, ACA
Director

Brian Farrell joined IBI in 1999 having qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1998.

Brian graduated from University College Dublin in 1995 with a degree in business and legal studies, achieving a placing in the final examinations, and obtained a Masters of Accounting degree from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business in 1996.


Ger Heffernan, MBS
Associate Director

Ger graduated with a first class Masters in Business Studies (Finance) from University College Dublin in 1993. He subsequently spent time working in the UCD Department of Banking and Finance and as an institutional portfolio manager with Bank of Ireland Asset Management before joining IBI.


Raymond Donegan, ACIS, MBS
Associate Director

Raymond graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1992 and obtained an MBS from University College Dublin in 1994.


David Lyons, BAAF, ACA
Associate Director

Prior to joining IBI, David was a Director in the Corporate Restructuring department of Farrell Grant Sparks, with responsibility for restructuring and turnaround projects and he advised on a wide variety of insolvency and corporate restructuring assignments.

David graduated from Dublin City University in 1996 with a degree in accounting and finance, and subsequently qualified as a chartered accountant in 1999.


It certainly seems like being an accountant helps, 7 out of 11 are members of ICAI (4 KPMG, 1 Arthur Andersen, 1 PricewaterhouseCoopers, 1 Farrell Grant Sparks). It's also interesting that there are zero members of ACCA, CIMA, CPA or the smaller institutes, all of the accountants did their training in practice, not 'industry' (last guy is a bit ambiguous) and at least 11 of the 17 degrees/diplomas are from UCD with one of the other six unspecified.
Hope this helps.