FIN600 - Financial Management Case Study Assignment

Assignment Task

Context

The purpose of the assignment is to provide you with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in FIN600 Financial Management, to a practical task, involving the use of ‘real‐world’ accounting information. This is intended to consolidate your accounting knowledge and skills.

Schedule(s) of relevant ratios and other useful calculations 

• The detailed calculation of relevant ratios and other useful calculations should be included, as one appendix, prepared using Excel. An example template is provided under the assessment 2 information, FIN600 Assessment 2 Appendix template.xls. 
• You will be advised by your facilitator as to which ratios to calculate.
• You are advised to show the formulae used in determining particular ratios and other figures.

A written report

The written report is the main element of this assessment. A sample template is provided under the assessment 2 information, FIN600 Assessment 2 report template.doc.

The written report should:

• Explain what is revealed by the ratios and other calculations, in the context of the company’s profitability, asset efficiency, liquidity, capital structure, and market performance.
• In particular, any important changes over the two financial years should be identified, discussed and, where possible, explained.
• Provide an overall assessment of whether the company, over the recent financial year, has been better than the previous financial year, in the perspective of existing equity investors (shareholders).

In preparing this report, students should:

• analyse the financial statements of the business;
• identify key ratios and apply ratio analysis;
• argue the case of why the organisation may or may not succeed in the future and what the business should be doing to help it succeed;
• consider the impact of the political and competitive environment on the business;
• include external factors that need to be taken into consideration and the likelihood of a merger or acquisition;
• provide a recommendation, that is, would you invest in this company after your own analysis or under what circumstances would you buy/save the business?

Points to consider

i. You are encouraged to seek and use additional public information about the company from sources, other than the annual report (for example, the internet, journal articles, newspapers, and business magazines).

ii. However, it is NOT envisaged that you will be engaged in extensive research of this nature and it is expected that the annual report will be the primary resource relied upon, in completing the assignment.

iii. You are asked NOT to try and make direct personal contact with the company or its officers (for example by telephone, fax, letter or email), in an attempt to gather further information.

iv. It is important to note that you must NOT reproduce company promotional material from the annual report or company website and represent it as critical analysis.

v. You will be provided relevant share price data for the company by your facilitator so that investment ratios (such as a price earnings ratio) can be calculated.

vi. You may find it useful to consult accounting references, in addition to the prescribed text, which deals with the analysis and interpretation of company financial reports.

vii. As this is a Masters-level subject, students are expected to engage with high quality credible resources (eg. academic journal articles) to support and develop arguments and position statements, using the References to ‘Wikipedia’ or similar unsubstantiated sources will not be accepted.

viii. It is essential that you use the appropriate APA 6th referencing style, for citing and referencing research. The assignment is to include in-text citations and a reference list following the appropriate APA 6th referencing style. Please see more information on referencing here:

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