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Model Answer Assignment 3
Model Answer Assignment 3
Assignment (3)
MODEL ANSWER
Look at the financial statements excerpted from the Foundation FastTrack and answer
the following questions, explaining the reasons and justification for your answers.
c. How could each company you mentioned in (a) and (b) have avoided the
emergency loan? (6 points)
*Andrews should have made profits by increasing prices or selling more or
decrease VC to have higher contribution margin, decrease fixed costs to have
higher net margin
*Chester should have had a better forecasting so that it wont end with high
inventory costs
Both Andrews and Chester should have made better sales forecasts. Plus,
Chester should have matched its plant improvements with long-term debt
or issuance of common stock.
d. For the rest of the companies (those that did not get an emergency loan)
evaluate how well each company is managing its cash by looking at the
following:
Ending cash position (BS)
Net change in cash position (CF)
Compare investment with financing (CF)
Net Income (CF)
Any huge cash outflow/inflow (CF)
Compare ending cash balance (BS) with Sales (IS) (is this a good cash
buffer?) (24 points)
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BADM 2001 Introduction to Business
Dr. Randa El Bedawy
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BADM 2001 Introduction to Business
Dr. Randa El Bedawy
though the
lowest
among
them.
Any huge Only the plant Has a huge cash Net cash from The hugest
cash improvements. outflow in Operations was cash outflow
outflow/in investment which negative because of for Ferris
flow (CF) means it is the the cash outflow in was for the
highest company in the inventory item, plant
investing. ALSO , which means that improvemen
the highest cash the company ended ts. And the
inflow from up with lots of largest cash
financing activities inventory due to inflow was
which means that overestimating its from log-
its investment was sales forecasts. term debt.
mostly leveraged. There was a a
Net cash from considerable
Operations was amount of cash
negative because of outflow in plant
the cash outflow in improvements that
the inventory item, was, mostly but not
which means that fully, covered by
the company ended long-term debt and
up with lots of issuance of
inventory due to common stocks.
overestimating its
sales forecasts.
There was a huge
cash outflow in
plant
improvements that
was, mostly but not
fully, covered by
long-term debt and
issuance of
common stocks.
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BADM 2001 Introduction to Business
Dr. Randa El Bedawy
good cash sales, which is good. Its not too good. Its not too cash is
buffer?) really good. much, because, it much, because, it 11.12% of
Its not too would then be would then be idle the sales,
much, idle non invested non invested cash. which is a
because, it cash. And it is also And it is also not bit high
would then be not too little so, it too little so, it did considering
idle non did not leave the not leave the that this is
invested cash. company in the company in the idle cash
And it is also risk of getting an risk of getting an that
not too little emergency loan. emergency loan. remains
so, it did not uninvested
leave the and could
company in have
the risk of contributed
getting an to the
emergency companys
loan. growth had
it been
efficiently
allocated.
2) Which company has the largest asset base? How big? (Hint: look at the BS) (2 points)
Digby
Digby, it is $70,012,000
3) Evaluate the capital structure of the company you picked in (2) above. Calculate the
leverage ratio (Assets/Equity) and the percentage of equity to debt in the companys
assets. Comment on your findings. (6 points)
Leverage ratio of Digby: 70012/36829 =1.9 almost 2
Acceptable Range(1.5-3)
So, the company seems to be financed equally by equity and debt, almost 50-50. This
is not bad because none of them is exceeding the maximum limit.
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BADM 2001 Introduction to Business
Dr. Randa El Bedawy
Hint:
A company with too much debt (over 70% of assets) is too risky as it may not be able to
pay back all of this debt and its interest. For banks, this company is a risky borrower
very few banks will be willing to lend it and those that do will charge a very high interest
rate to match the risk of the company.
On the other hand a company with too much equity (over 70% of assets) is at risk of being
taken over (i.e. bought out by another company). The company is an attractive target for
acquisition because there is an opportunity for whoever acquires this company to borrow
debt easily using all the equity as collateral, and to use all of this borrowing to expand the
company and make more profits. The fact that the current management is not making use
of this opportunity indicates that current management is out of profitable growth ideas. If
the company is acquired, the top management will normally be fired.
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BADM 2001 Introduction to Business
Dr. Randa El Bedawy
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BADM 2001 Introduction to Business
Dr. Randa El Bedawy
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