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1ASSIGNMENT 1 Strategic - Financial - Management - AF4S31 - V2
1ASSIGNMENT 1 Strategic - Financial - Management - AF4S31 - V2
October 2020
This report comprises of two main parts whose objectives are to respectively analyze the key
Tesco stakeholders and the financial position of Benedict Co. in the first part the author will
use Tesco annual report 2016 to identify and analyze its key stakeholders who are customers,
suppliers and employees , focusing on how the company’s Environmental and Social Review
and the Corporate Governance Report help Tesco demonstrate its performance in terms of its
corporate and social responsibilities to two of its stakeholders. Although there are many other
stakeholders that are affected by corporate decisions or serve as link between financial and
non-financial objectives, the report concluded that these two stakeholders play a very
significant role in helping the company measure the performance of both of its financial and
non-financial objectives.
On the other hand, Benedict Co.’s financial position has been evaluated using a number of
financial statements/ratios. In this regard, the report has revealed a company that is financially
weak within the period under revew.
Although maximization of shareholder wealth is the primary goal, many firms like Tesco PLC
have broaden their focus to include the interest of stakeholders as well as shareholders.
A review of Tesco’s 2016 annual report reveals that as the company strives to achieve their
long- term strategy of becoming the market leader brand in their industry, they are focused on
maintaining and restoring good rapport and trust with their stakeholders. (Tesco 2016)
Who are stakeholders? According to Clarkson (1995), stakeholders are “persons or groups
that have, or claim, ownership, rights, or interests in a corporation and its activities, past,
present, or future”. Also, Thomson, Wartic and Smith (1991) defines stakeholders as groups
“in relationship with an organisation.” Adding that they can affect or be affected by the
organization’s action, objectives or policies. Stakeholders, in a broader sense, are customers,
creditors, employees, government agencies, shareholders, creditors, owners who have a direct
economic connection to the firm etc. In addition, Alkhafaji (1989) buttresses that stakeholders
are groups to whom the corporation is accountable”.
Just as most organisations are accountable to their shareholders, they are also in the same
vein, accountable to their stakeholders. This is because stakeholders are largely endowed with
the powers and abilities to influence choices and decisions which affect an organization.
Furthermore, a broader definition of stakeholder is: “…any group or individual who can affect
or is affected by the achievement of an organization’s objectives.” (Freeman, 1984 pp46;
Freeman and Reed 1983 pp93). In summary, stakeholders are people, firms, organizations,
entities or simply the entire community that can affect or be affected by the company’s
activities.
Most companies have different stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, employees,
investors, shareholders, etc. These stakeholders can be summarised into two major groups:
• Internal stakeholders: employees & colleagues
How the Environmental and Social Review and the Corporate Governance Report help
Tesco demonstrate its Performance to two of its stakeholders - Customers and
Suppliers
The Environmental and Social Review and Corporate Governance reports reveals how Tesco
PLC has performed in terms of its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) to its stakeholders.
This report will discuss only two out of the three key stakeholders - the customers and
suppliers, for the purpose of this exercise.
According to the CEO’s statement, he mentioned that the company would retain the same
strategy for success endorsed since October 2014. They are to regain competitiveness,
protect and strengthen the balance sheet and rebuild trust and transparence (Tesco, 2016).
This global brand, armed with over 400,000 staff, 6,902 retailer shops that serves millions of
customers upholds a strong mantra -“Serving Shoppers a Little Better Every Day”
It has also defined clear strategies for applying best global practices for its suppliers.
The above mentioned are evident in the Tesco’s annual report 2016, especially on (p. 8, 12-
13, 30, 39, 43, 51, 126) where these relationships between Corporate Governance and its
Social and Environmental Reviews and their stakeholders and performance measures are
clearly defined.
Barnes (1987) explains that financial ratios are useful and concludes that ratios are strong
indicators and excellent measure of performance for companies. Whereas Horrigan (1968)
asserts that the most significant development in finance has been the advent of financial ratios
for the purpose of financial analysis. The use of financial ratios is a time-tested method of
ascertaining the true picture of a company’s state of financial condition within a given period.
On the surface, a company’s prospective stakeholders may view a company as a thriving
business however the only way to truly ascertain how the company has been faring within a
given period of time is by dissecting the business using financial ratio analysis.
Even though Benedict Co’s since its establishment in 1983, has been popular for trading in
damaged or abandoned cargo and other items, from transport claims or warehouse losses
(Benedict Co. 2019). This report will now examine the company’s state of financial health and
its performance with a selected period of time - years 20X0 and 20X1. After calculating the
financial rations from the provided statement of income and financial position of the company,
the ratios will then be compared to the trend witnessed in other organisations in their industry,
The chosen financial ratios are tabulated below:
SUMMARY OF SELECTED FINANCIAL RATIOS
S/ Financial Relevance and purpose Formula
N Ratio
Profitability ratios: used to assess a business's ability to generate earnings relative to its
revenue, operating costs, balance sheet assets, or shareholders' equity over time, using
data from a specific point in time
1 Gross indicates the percentage of revenues that remain Gross Profit
Profit after deducting the cost of goods sold. x100
Margin www.thebalancesmb.com Sales
2 Net Profit indicates how well a company can transform its PBITx100
Margin revenues into profits. Net profit margin is the percent Sales
of revenue remaining after all operating expenses,
interest, taxes, and preferred stock dividends have
been deducted from a company's gross or total
Adapted from: Scicluna, C. (2019), Module Handout Notes and Corporate Financial TM
Institute (Undated)
Calculations, Interpretations and Analysis of Benedict Co. Financial Ratios
Benedict Co. Profitability Ratio for 20X1 and 20X0
The gross profits margin: This grew from $10.4M in 20X0 to $14.8M in 20X1 which is a
42.31% increase. Further calculation reveal that the Gross profit margin increased from
41.77% to 48.05% from 20X0 to 20X1 respectively. This increase can be as a result of the
23.69% increase in sales within the same period. It can be deduced that since the company
made more sales within a period, all things being equal, it will also make more profit.
Therefore, the increase in sales and reduced cost of sales in the company’s financials may
explain the increase noticed in gross profit margin
Net profit margin: This, however decreased from 32.93% in 20X0 to 22.73% in 20X1. This
was a result of the significant increase in finance cost (interest payment) which more than
doubled from $0.5m to $1.3m representing an increase of 160%.
Net Asset Turnover: Also, Net asset turnover increased during the years under review from
0.73 to 0.77 times. This may be attributed to the reported increase in sales than the capital
employed. This shows an improvement in Benedict Co.’s ability to generate more revenue
from capital injected in the business.
Return on Capital Employed (ROCE): The ratios above reveals that ROCE decreased from
24.19% in 20X0 to 17.50% in 20X1. From the above scenario, it is worthy to note that though
ROCE decreased under the two years in review, this could mean that there were more sales
with reduced prices to attract customers.
the increase in the capital employed from $33.9M to 40.0M in 20X0 and 20X1 respectively
seem to have contributed to the decrease in ROCE as well. The decrease in ROCE may also
be due to the company’s profit before taxes decrease from $8.7M to $8.3M in years 20X0 and
20X1 respectively (Appendix 6.2).
The decreased ROCE suggest that the company’s efficiency to use its capital to generate
profit has significantly reduced; or the company bought more products and sold at lower and
more competitive prices to attract and grow a larger customer base as evidenced by the
Quick ratio or ‘Acid Test’, looks at the most liquid assets and compares it with current
liabilities. This decreased slightly from 0.75 to 0.70 during the years under review. From Table
4, it’s observed that, though quick ratio decreased from 0.75 to 0.70, It reduced due to the fact
that whereas current assets and stock both increased by 100% from year 20X0 to year 20X1,
current liabilities increased higher by 112% with the same period. It is however satisfactory
since it remained with the recommended figures of between 0.5 to 1 (Corporate Finance
Institute, Undated).
Current ratio decreased slightly as well from 1.25 to 1.19 during the two years under review.
In 20X1 for every $1.19 of current assets, the company had $1.0 liabilities. Thus Benedict Co.
can cover its liabilities marginally. The decrease in current ratio may have been caused by
increased sales reported earlier. To increase current ratio, Benedict Co can re-invest back its
profits by buying more assets or acquire a long-term loan or pay its debts. A very high current
ratio may mean that, cash is not being utilized in an optimal way. It just goes to show that if this
trend continues, the company might lose its ability to pay its short-term liabilities by having
assets that are readily convertible into cash. Jim (2011) argued that current ratios of 1.0 to 1.5
implies that, a business may struggle to pay its short-term liabilities.
Stock/Inventory days normally measures the average number of days that the company
keeps its stock before selling. Benedict Co. stock days / inventory days has increased from
65.45 days to 118.68 days (Table 5) compared to the industry average of 60 days (Appendix
6.1). This is despite the earlier reported increase in sales. A high days inventory outstanding
indicates that a company is not able to quickly turn its inventory into sales. This can be due to
poor sales performance or the purchase of too much inventory. Having too much idle inventory
is detrimental to a company as inventory may eventually become obsolete and unsellable
according to corporate finance website
Creditor/Trade payable days
It was observed that Benedict Co. increased creditor days from 108.24 to 155.13, a difference
of 43.31 days in the years 20X0 to 20X1. This trade payables are way more than the average
in the industry players of 90 days. Even though payables are longer than receivables, Benedict
Co.’s trade suppliers may opt not to give credit to the company and opt to deal with other
industry players with better prognoses. This may also be interpreted that, the company
financial position is poor.
Cash conversion cycle is a cash flow calculation that measures the time it takes a company
to convert its investment in inventory and other resource inputs into cash. Table 5 shows a
remarkable increase in Benedict Co.’s cash conversion cycle from a mere 12.91 to 53.56 from
20X0 to 20X1. When a company – or its management – take an extended period of time to
collect outstanding accounts receivable, has too much inventory on hand or pays its expenses
too quickly, it lengthens the CCC. A longer CCC means it takes a longer time to generate
cash, which can mean insolvency for small companies.
Debtor days ratio measures the average number of days required for a company to receive
payment (trade receivables) from its customers for invoices issued to them (Bragg 2018).
Gearing Ratios
Table 6. Benedict Co. Gearing Ratios for Years 20X1 and 20X0
Kaplan Financial (2012) argues that assessment of financial position of a business mainly
focuses on its stability and exposure to risk by considering the way the business is structured
and financed. This is referred to as gearing. Gearing measures the level of external debt a
company has (outstanding loans) in comparison to equity finance (share capital and reserves).
From our calculation in Table 6, gearing ratio increased slightly from 23.60 % to 30.00% from
20X0 to 20X1, which is below the recommended 50% (Scicluna, 2019). The increase may be
attributed to the company’s increase in long term debt from $8M to $12M (50%) compared to a
slight increase in capital employed from $33.9M to $40M (17.99%).
The liquidity ratios above, means that the company has increased its risk to cover its long-term
debts by its capital employed (Edwards, 2003). Debt/equity ratio has remarkably increased
from 30.89% in 20X0 to 42.86% in 20X1 (50%) which is due to an increase in the company’s
long-term debt acquisition than that of its stock capital and reserves (8.11% in Appendix 6.3).
Thus, the increase of capital and reserve was not able to balance a respective increase in
Table 7 shows that return on equity decreased while DPS increased. The DPS increase can
be explained by the 25% increase in the total dividends paid (Appendix 6.2). Dividend Cover
decreased from 0.002 times to 0.001 times, because of the decreased earnings after tax and
the high dividends paid. EPS remained unchanged and significantly low. Payout ratio is
inversely proportional to dividend cover ratio and thus as one tends to zero the other grows to
infinity. Dividend yield ratio decreased from 0.56% to 0.45% as a result of increased stock's
market price of 55.56% (from $ 3.6 per share to 5.6 per share), offsetting the DPS by 25% as
observed. Earnings yield ratio decreased due to the observed deterioration of profitability and
EPS values tending to zero.
4. CONCLUSION
The analysis depicts Benedict Co. as a company whose financial position is weak, with strong
financial and business risks. They reveal very basic information such as whether you have
accumulated too much debt, stockpiled too much inventory or are not collecting receivables
The insights that come from the ratios you use should shape the direction of your business
plan. “Status quo can kill the potential of a business,” says Bourret. “You always want to be
adapting and innovating, and ratios can help you do that