MMB053 Managing Business Finance Assignment - York St John University, UK

Assessment Task - Written report

Learning Outcomes -

1. Understand the fundamental concepts underlying financial accounting statements

2. Appraise the performance of a range of organisations using appropriate accounting ratios and the usefulness of financial accounting information for a range of stakeholders.

Task - Compare two companies - and the company is stagecoach and the first group.

Assignment Description - Task - Analysis of financial accounts

Introduction

You must choose a UK based Plc. company from the list that I will put on Moodle. You must also find a suitable competitor company to enable valid comparisons of performance to be made.

Required -

a) A brief introduction to the company, the nature of its business and a brief overview of its financial performance and position over the past five years.

b) Compare the financial performance of your company and a suitable competitor using ratios over the last 2 financial years. Your analysis should cover profitability, liquidity, efficiency and capital structure ratios. Review and adjust your ratios in the light of any changes in accounting policy or any unusual transactions or events that might have occurred and discuss the ratios fully.

c) In your opinion would the company be a good investment in terms of holding ordinary shares? Justify your answer.

d) Consider the limitations of your analysis and any reservations that you may have about the analysis that you have provided.

Note - You are advised to keep abreast of business news about your company to explain any impact on capital and financial markets and perceived performance of your company.

You should make use of tables & graphs to present complex information and ensure that the report is written in a professional way. Remember that your report needs to critically address the issue of whether the business is a worthwhile investment rather than simply describing the ratios and financial data. Any calculation of ratios or supplementary data can be included in an appendix to your work. Work in an appendix does not count towards the word count limit. Your analysis should cover the limitations of ratio analysis.