David Rapp

In the winter semester 23/24, Prof. Dr. David Rapp from the Institut Supérieur de Gestion/ISG International Business School Paris offered the course „Functional Value Theory in the Course of Business Valuation Case Studies“ in the Master‘s program in Business Management, with a specialization in „Accounting and Audit“. All students in this specialization took part in Prof. Dr. Rapp‘s lectures.

The Master’s students had the opportunity to work on current and cross-border topics of company valuation. The focus was primarily on sustainability aspects in company valuation. In Prof. Dr. Rapp’s lectures, which formed the theoretical basis of the module, students were given an insight into the theory of functional value theory at the start of the semester. Following the theoretical phase of the module, the students tested what they had learned in practice together with Prof. Dr. Matthias Weimann. Together with a practice partner from Luxembourg, they put their theoretical skills into practice by evaluating a wind farm.

Sustainable Development Goals played a role in both the theoretical and practical parts of the event, as sustainability aspects need to be factored into a company valuation. It was discussed whether companies that do not operate sustainably should be given a discount rate to be determined as a risk deduction in the valuation in order to take future risks into account when determining the value. In the practical part, the reference to SDGs resulted from the fact that a large wind farm in northern Germany was valued.

What is special about this cooperation is that not only the participating Master’s students benefited from Prof. Dr. Rapp’s guest lectureship. The aim is to make the cooperation permanent, enabling both regular student exchanges and further guest lectureships in Trier and Paris.