Selected organization - Harischandra Mills
Word Count - 2500
The company I've chosen is Harischandra Mills.
Financial comparison could be done with Renuka Agri or another FMCG company in Sri Lanka
https://harischandramills.com/
FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND LAW ACADEMIC YEAR 2022/23 Coursework Assessment Brief Submission and feedback dates Submission deadline: Is eligible for 5 calendar day late submission window N.B. all times are 24-hour clock, current local time (at time of submission) in the UK Submission details Module title and code: UMADFJ-15-M Financial Decision Making Component and type: Component B report Assessment title: Business Report Assessment weighting: 50% of total module mark Size or length of assessment: 2,500 words (no +/- 10% to be used) Module learning outcomes assessed by this task: 1. Critically evaluate the role of financial objectives for different stakeholders within emerging to well-developed financial markets 2. Evaluate reported financial information to support complex management decision making problems 3. Identify the main types of finance available to individuals and organisations, how they can be sourced and their appropriateness to different investment decisions 4. Recognise and address ethical dilemmas and corporate social responsibility issues, applying ethical and organisational values to financial situations and decisions 5. Evaluate the impact of the external environment on financial decision making in organisations. The external environment includes legal, economic, ethical, political, sociological and technological aspects Completing your assessment What am I required to do on this assessment? You are required to obtain the latest annual report of a public limited company. This may be a company you have worked for previously or would like to work for when you finish your MBA. You want to find out as much information about the financial management decision making style of the company from these reports. You can obtain annual reports by going to the website of the company and looking under ‘investor relations. Alternatively, you can use the Financial Times annual reports service by going to https://www.orderannualreports.com/060/UI/GP/home.aspx?cp_2=P498 . You only need to print off the three main accounts contained within the annual report. These accounts are The Income Statement, Statement of Financial Position (or Balance Sheet) and Statement of Cash Flow. Using the information contained within these accounts for the last two years, and with reference to relevant theories studied within the module you are required to do the following: 1. Discuss the different long-term sources of finance available to companies and theories that discuss their risk/return characteristics and optimum capital structure. With reference to the accounts then discuss the long-term capital structure of the chosen company and what this may indicate about the company’s attitude to risk. You may need to refer to the specific note in the notes to the accounts to get detailed information on this. Part of your answer to this question should include calculation of a suitable gearing ratio. 2. Discuss relevant working capital management theories. Then calculate suitable working capital ratios and discuss how efficiently the company is managing its short-term sources of finance. 3. Discuss the range of dividend policies available to companies, why certain companies may choose certain policies and what sort of dividend policy the directors of the company seem to be following and possible reasons for this. 4. Assess the profitability and risk of the company and how attractive it appears to be to potential investors, in doing so make use of market structure analysis internal to the industry. Your answer should include some evaluation of the type of external economic environment of the company and the business models used. You may want to look at information contained on the FAME/OSIRIS database for longer term information. Please note the ratios calculated on FAME/OSIRIS can often be different to those you will be calculating from the accounts for a number of reasons. https://www.orderannualreports.com/060/UI/GP/home.aspx?cp_2=P498 Your mark will reflect i) The extent to which your essay demonstrates an understanding of underlying financial and economic theories introduced in the module; and ii) The degree to which you are able to apply such theories in a real-world context. Please note: You are not being asked to undertake a financial analysis of the company. The expected outcome of this assignment is a discussion of the different possible theories and their application to the case study in order to identify the risk/return characteristics of the company and the industry. You are expected to be able to demonstrate that you have read and are able to synthesise academic literature. Any corporate finance textbook will be helpful for background reading. However, you may find the following textbooks particularly helpful. Corporate Financial Management by Glen Arnold Fundamentals of Corporate Finance by Richard Brealey Corporate Finance and Investment by Richard Pike and Bill Neale Corporate Finance: Principles and Practice by Denzil Watson and Antony Head Higher marks will also be gained by correct referencing to seminal articles. Harvard system of referencing should be used. Format All work should be word processed in 12 point font Calibri and single spaced. Please use the following file format(s)………. (Word) lease ensure that you provide the following details on the first page of your coursework: Student Number Module Name and Number Word Count Where should I start? Choose your company and then read the 19-page word document in study unit 8 on blackboard entitled ‘How to answer the assignment. What do I need to do to pass? Marking Scheme for the Financial Decision-Making coursework Student number: Mark: Area Marks Section One: Discussion of the risk/return characteristics of internal equity, loans, market debt, convertible debt and shares, Critical evaluation and synthesis of Pecking Order and Static Trade Off theories. Discussion of the different sources of finance used by the company and its application to the relevant theories. Calculation and evaluation of gearing ratio. Marks out of 20 Section Two: Critical evaluation of aggressive to conservative working capital management theories Calculation and evaluation of current ratio, liquid ratio, inventory days, receivable days, payable days and cash conversion cycle. Marks out of 20. Section Three: Critical evaluation and synthesis of at least dividend irrelevance, Clientele, Bird in the Hand and Signalling theories. Application of the chosen company to the theories. Marks out of 20 Section Four: Calculation and evaluation of suitable profitability ratios Evaluation of return in relation to risk through discussion and application of Capital Asset Pricing Model. Discussion of the external economic environment of the company either using PEST analysis or an analysis of its particular business model. Marks out of 30 Conclusion and presentation Marks out of 10 Total mark out of 100 Marking Criteria A+ (85-100%) Outstanding Pass; An outstanding piece of work of near publishable quality A (70-84%) Distinctive Pass; Excellent work that exceeds the requirement of the module learning outcomes in all important dimensions B (60-69%) Meritorious Pass; Very good work at M level – satisfied all important requirements of assessment task and module learning outcomes C (50-59%) Pass; Good work at M level – student demonstrates achievement against all learning outcomes but with some limitations D (45-49%) Marginal fail; Does not meet the required overall standard – may have some good qualities but some learning outcomes not met E (0-44%) Fail; Contains significant flaws, few of the learning outcomes for the module have been demonstrated How do I achieve high marks in this assessment? Your mark will reflect i) The extent to which your essay demonstrates an understanding of underlying financial and economic theories introduced in the module; and ii) The degree to which you are able to apply such theories in a real-world context. Please note: You are not being asked to undertake a financial analysis of the company. The expected outcome of this assignment is a discussion of the different possible theories and their application to the case study in order to identify the risk/return characteristics of the company and the industry. You are expected to be able to demonstrate that you have read and are able to synthesise academic literature. However, citing lots of recent authors for basic statements does not gain marks. You should only cite the seminal articles. You gain high marks by demonstrating that you have read the literature and can critically evaluate in your own words. How does the learning and teaching relate to the assessment? This assessment relates to study units 4-8. What additional resources may help me complete this assessment? You need a good corporate finance textbook as suggested above. Use the Business Source Complete database to find articles Use the FAME (UK companies) or Osiris (Overseas companies) to find out more information about the companies you are researching. What do I do if I am concerned about completing this assessment? Five-day late submission window (including University closure days) following the submission deadline are granted for students who need additional time to complete their work due to personal difficulties. Students will be automatically entitled to submit their assessment without penalty within this grace period, there is no need for you to apply. For further information please see : Late submission window - Assessment support options | UWE Bristol UWE Bristol offer a range of Assessment Support Options that you can explore through this link, and both Academic Support and Wellbeing Support are available. For further information, please see the Academic Survival Guide. The module leaders cannot grant personal circumstances or extensions. https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/academic-information/personal-circumstances/late-submission-window https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/academic-information/personal-circumstances/late-submission-window https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/academic-information/personal-circumstances https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/academic-information/personal-circumstances https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/study-support/student-support-advisers https://www.uwe.ac.uk/life/health-and-wellbeing/get-wellbeing-support https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/academic-information/academic-survival-guide Support during the module You can contact the module team via email, at the tutorial sessions and lectures. However, no questions will be allowed after December 16th 2022 when your focus should be on writing up the final report. How do I avoid an Assessment Offence on this module? Use the support above if you feel unable to submit your own work for this module. The most common form of AO for this assessment is where students have copied information from non-academic sources such as Wikipedia and Investopedia. Please ensure you reference all sources used when developing your assessment, using the UWE Harvard system. Failure to properly reference your work to original source material can be grounds for the assessment offence of plagiarism and may result in failure of the assessment or more serious implications. Further guidance on correct referencing is available on UWE’s Study Skills referencing pages. UWE’s Assessment Offences Policy outlines potential offences and it is your responsibility to understand this policy and avoid potential offences. Details of what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it can be found on UWE’s Study Skills pages about avoiding plagiarism. Text-matching software (e.g. SafeAssign) is used to check every submission against other submissions made at the same time, previous submissions to UWE and other universities, and internet sources. We may also manually search for matches. When submitting your work, you will be required to confirm that the work is your own. It is an assessment offence to: - copy work from any source, including your own previous assessments, and present it as your own work for this assessment, or to provide your own work to others - to work with others on the assessment in any way, or for anyone to make amends on your work (including proof-readers, who may highlight issues but not edit the work) - change individual words but keep, essentially, the same sentences and/or structures from other sources: this will be detected by text-matching software. Please write in your own words and style to convey your own learning. Marks and Feedback Your assessment will be marked according to the following marking criteria. You can use these to evaluate your own work before you submit. Marking Scheme for the Financial Decision-Making coursework Student number: https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/study-support/study-skills/referencing/uwe-bristol-harvard https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/study-support/study-skills/referencing https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/academic-information/assessments/assessment-offences https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/study-support/study-skills/reading-and-writing/plagiarism Mark: Area Marks Section One: Discussion of the risk/return characteristics of internal equity, loans, market debt, convertible debt and shares, Critical evaluation and synthesis of Pecking Order and Static Trade Off theories. Discussion of the different sources of finance used by the company and its application to the relevant theories. Calculation and evaluation of gearing ratio. Marks out of 20 Section Two: Critical evaluation of aggressive to conservative working capital management theories Calculation and evaluation of current ratio, liquid ratio, inventory days, receivable days, payable days and cash conversion cycle. Marks out of 20. Section Three: Critical evaluation and synthesis of at least dividend irrelevance, Clientele, Bird in the Hand and Signalling theories