Strategic Investment Appraisal

Assessment - Project appraisal report

Instructions for assessment
The assessment is an individual project appraisal report. The project is a recent business takeover or merger to be investigated in detail. The report should be 3,000 words plus appendices containing slides, spreadsheet analysis and learning logs.

A business case should be made to justify the takeover bid. Your report should contain:
Present ONE slide for each: (2 power-point slides appended to your report)
strategic/market (competitor) analysis (rationale for takeover)
preliminary financial analysis, stating the assumptions required to value the target company using DCF analysis (revenue growth, profit margin, cost of capital etc.)
A business valuation, based on recent financial performance, calculate the equity value of the target company to justify the bid price offered by bidder. Explain your methods and justify your assumptions for forecast performance under new ownership. You should append 2 screenshots from a spreadsheet model (results & formulae) to your report

What if? Identify a possible rival bidder (usually from the same sector). Explain why the rival bidder may have made different assumptions in their business valuation and hence a different bid price

Write a critique of business valuation methods and relevant research, explaining why any anticipated bidder gains may not come to fruition, especially given the possible economic crisis (e.g. Covid-19). Refer to relevant research and cite journal articles to support your discussion

A learning (b)log (using the template provided) to reflect on what you have learnt from each session (at least 8), including reference to Moodle materials, showing how you have applied this learning to the assessment task, to be appended to your report Get Homework Help Now!

A supporting bibliography and professional style of report (presentation)

Structure and presentation
The individual report should be 3000 words plus references and appendices. The report must be a word document, but you are expected to use a spreadsheet for the financial analysis. You should submit screenshots of your spreadsheet results view and formulae view in an appendix.

Any written work should be spell-checked and a contents page should be included. Do not use various font sizes and colours Black ink, Arial, size 11, 1.5 lines spaced is recommended. Use DIN A4 format and page margins of 2.5 cm or 1 inch.

Between you handing in your work and then receiving your feedback and marks within 20 days, there are a number of quality assurance processes that we go through to ensure that students receive marks which reflects their work. A brief summary is provided below.
Step One - The module and marking team meet to agree standards, expectations and how feedback will be provided.
Step Two - A subject expert will mark your work using the criteria provided in the assessment brief.
Step Three - A moderation meeting takes place where all members of the teaching and marking team will review the marking of others to confirm whether they agree with the mark and feedback
Step Four - Work then goes to an external examiner who will review a sample of work to confirm that the marking between different staff is consistent and fair.
Step Five - Your mark and feedback is processed by the Office and made available to you.