The Development Center for Finance successfully conducted its first online seminar in 2020. The Financial Statement Analysis Seminar, attended by 15 participants, was initially held at the Cesar E. A. Virata School of Business, University of the Philippines, Diliman. However, it transitioned to an online class due to the COVID19 situation. The dates were March 7, June 27, July 4 and July 11.

Dr. Arthur Cayanan facilitated Day 1. Participants were given a roadmap on Financial Statement Analysis. The session was devoted to understanding the asset and liability components of the statement of financial position, which was further reinforced by a case discussion.

Day 2 picked up on Day 1’s discussion of understanding the statement of financial position particularly equity. Prof. Josel Rivera also walked the participants through understanding the income statement with emphasis on quality of earnings, as well as, the cash flows statements. Exercises were used to demonstrate how financial statements are prepared and how they are related.

Financial statement analysis techniques were taught by Prof. Diogenes Dy on Day 3. Participants prepared common-size financial statements, trend analysis and ratio analysis based on actual financial statements. Aside from quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis was also covered.

On Day 4, Prof. Diogenes Dy guided participants through cases on three listed corporations in the Philippines. These emphasized the use of financial statement analysis techniques – qualitative and quantitative – in understanding financial statements and making inferences from analyses results.

Some of the feedback about the seminar were as follows:

“It takes some adjustment to cope with the new learning platform. It is not easy to adapt with, but good job to our lecturers for pulling off outstanding classes.”

“Keep up the good work on conducting a seminar like this!”

“Informative and well-planned. Congratulations!”

“Very nice examples from different industries!”

“A nice experience for a first timer on a webinar!”