You are required to select one publicly listed company from within your group’s chosen global industry. Students within the same group cannot analyse the same company. You are then required to use tools of financial analysis to assess the corporate performance of your selected company from the perspective of a potential acquirer.

QUESTION

EC221

EC221 Finance Assignment Brief

This element of the EC221 module is assessed through an individual corporate analysis.

You are required to select one publicly listed company from within your group’s chosen global industry. Students within the same group cannot analyse the same company. You are then required to use tools of financial analysis to assess the corporate performance of your selected company from the perspective of a potential acquirer.

It is expected that your interpretation of your financial analysis will draw upon the macroeconomic country analysis and global industry analysis undertaken within the first section of the module, where appropriate. Your interpretation of your financial analysis will in addition draw upon aspects of finance which we cover in the second semester. For example, ratios concerning liquidity and efficiency can be considered as evidence of working capital management practices within companies.

You are expected to compare the corporate performance of your chosen company (i.e. by exchanging companies’ ratios with your fellow group members, or by comparing your company’s ratios with industry benchmarks found in the web) again drawing upon key aspects of your macroeconomic country analysis and global industry analysis to inform your comparisons and benchmarking where appropriate.

Learning Outcomes:

• Analyse and interpret financial information in a meaningful way
• Assess the microeconomic performance of companies though an understanding of publicly available data
• Develop skills to analyse microeconomic performance and make comparisons
• To understand the practical aspects of the financing of global companies

Assessment Criteria:

Work will be marked in accordance with the following specific criteria but also with reference to the general criteria within the course handbook.

• Organization, presentation and structure
• Selection and application of tools of financial analysis
• Accuracy of ratio calculations
• Depth and quality of the interpretation
• Depth and quality of inter-company analysis
• Use of macroeconomic country analysis and global industry analysis within the interpretation of the financial analysis

Presentation:

Work must be presented as word processed documents and fully referenced in line with the guidance available in the Brighton Business School Referencing Handbook. Full workings must be clearly shown for your financial analysis. As you are submitting through TurnItIn your workings should be organised in Word using a table, or similar. Your tables of workings can be included in an appendix but you will be expected to refer to the results of your analysis within the main text. The financial statements, and any relevant notes upon which the analysis is based, must also be included within an appendix.

A report format should be used which implies that your work should include the following; an introduction, an analysis section, and a conclusion. Your coursework will be supported by tutors following the Easter break in project workshop sessions. You are required to submit your report on StudentCentral on the EC221 assignment page. You work will be checked for plagiarism using TurnItIn before being marked by your tutor. You should follow the normal Business School policies regarding your online submission via StudentCentral.

Other sources of information:

You are required to calculate your own ratios and provide evidence of this in the provision of workings. However you may find that there are additional sources of information that you might find useful especially for benchmarking purposes. These might include; The London Stock Exchange website, The Financial Times website, FAME (Financial analysis made easy, accessed through the online library, and Reuters.

ANSWER