ACC5502 Accounting and Financial Management

Assignment One - Based on Modules 1-6

Question One                                                               

Application of Modules 1 & 2

Some common news article headlines over the last 6 months for Forge Group Ltd include:

Forge wins Roy Hill contract                                                              2 Sept 2013
Forge to lose $290 million                                                                  19 Sept 2013
Forge wins pile up                                                                               7 Oct 2013
Forge over the barrel                                                                           18 Nov 2013
Forge's baptism of fire                                                                        28 Nov 2013
Lawsuits could be next chapter in Forge Story                                  30 Nov 2013
Forge enters trading halt                                                                     10 Jan 2014

Forge: Third time unlucky                                                                  29 Jan 2014
Forge exists ASX200 index                                                                13 Feb 2014.
Forge group job losses at nearly 1500 after company collapse           17 Feb 2014

On 11 February 2014 Forge Group Ltd was placed in a trading halt. Forge Group Ltd was a successful construction company with a good outlook and great management of operations. It took over a company called CTEC in January 2012 for $16 million + $22.6 million earn-outs. In effect, the takeover meant they bought two major contracts for the construction of 1. the Diamantina Power Station and 2. the West Angelas Power Station. It was these two contracts that seemed to have underperformed with cost blowouts causing considerable strain on resources. The contracts were said to be worth approximately 25% of the $1.8 billion order book. So they were significant contracts.

Required:

1.      Outline the key duties of directors.     

2.      Outline the arguments for the directors of Forge Group Ltd that they carried out their duties.                         

3.      Outline the arguments for shareholders, creditors and employees that the directors of Forge Group Ltd didn't carry out their duties.                                       

4.      Give your opinion as to whether the directors of Forge Group Ltd carried out their duties.
2 marks

5.      Journalist Paul Garvey from The Australian on 18 February, 2014 stated:

"A spokesman for Ferrier Hodgson said the group was aware of claims circulating on social media that allegedly detail expenses incurred ahead of the group's slip into administration last week. Allegations suggest some senior managers cashed out their leave entitlements earlier this year and relocated to Sydney at the company's cost. ...  The Australian revealed on Saturday that senior Forge managers had been relocated to Sydney at significant expense in the months after Forge first revealed the power station contract issues that ultimately proved fatal. .... News of the spending and the rumours of the annual leave payout have angered some Forge shareholders whose holdings now appear worthless ......"

Assume Paul Garvey's allegations are founded, compare and contrast the concepts of utilitarianism and Kantianism using the context of the allegations to illustrate your main arguments.                                                                                               

Question Two

Application of Modules 3-6

1.      Refer to the 30 June 2013 financial reports of Forge Group Ltd on their web site http://www.forgegroup.com/images/files/Reports_Presentations/Forge_Group_2013_Annual_Report.pdf   Answer the following questions using the consolidated financial report and the notes to the consolidated financial report for the year ending 30 June 2013: (2 marks each for a total of 24 marks)

a)      Does Forge Group Ltd use historical cost accounting or some other basis?

b)      State the accounting equation at the beginning and end of the year and the changes between the beginning and end of the year.

c)      State the changes in the company's equity during 2013. Speculate on why the change.

d)     What is the main asset the company owns and what is its value? Compare this to the total equity. State your conclusion from this comparison.

e)      Outline the 'other' item that makes up comprehensive income. Why would it be important to segregate this amount on the income statement?

f)       Outline the largest expenses on the income statement. Compare them to the cash, debtors, creditors and inventory balances. Comment on this comparison.

g)      State the total revenue, net profit attributable to members of Forge Group Ltd and EBIT.

h)      Compare the net profit with the net cash flows from operating activities. Which amount is larger? Is this normal?

i)        Examine the Reconciliation of Cash Flows from Operations with the NPAT. Outline the three major reconciliation items and state how they changed.

j)        Comment on the changes discovered in the cash flow/profit reconciliation amounts from (i) above.

k)      Outline the changes that have occurred in the company's financing activities.

l)        State what investment activity Forge Group Ltd undertook during 2013. Was there a net investment or a divestment?

2.

a) For the Forge Group Ltd for the years ending 30 June 2013 and 30 June 2011 compute and discuss the ROE, ROA, profit margin ratio, asset turnover ratio, current ratio, cash flow ratio, debt to equity ratio, interest coverage ratio, debt coverage ratio, NTAB, EPS, DPS and the PER. (3 marks per ratio for a total of 39 marks)

b) Discuss the major differences between your analysis of the 30 June 2013 report and the 30 June 2011 report (prior to the takeover of CTEC). (10 marks)

Note:

Structure, clarity and presentation of the assignment will be awarded 2 marks.

(Sources withheld: Questions for this assignment are taken from other sources. Details of this source have been withheld for assessment purposes. This material is reproduced under the provisions of the Section 200 (1) (b) of the Copyright Amendment Act 1980.)

General Requirements:

1.     Be as concise and efficient in your writing as possible. You should not need any more than four double spaced A4 pages (12 point font) to answer question one. You may be able to answer sufficiently in a lot less. Question two involves numbers and calculations and therefore the format of presentation will mainly determine your pages required. Please try to present this in a neat and easy to follow format.

2.     Place references for all questions at the end of the assignment not at the end of each question.

3.     You can use dot points or tables to help present your answer if you wish.

4.     You should note that the assignment is based on modules 1-6.

Assignment Title 1 Notes and Requirements

Please present the whole assignment in a clean, neat presentation

Question TWO (75 Marks)

1 (a)     Refer to annual report notes section to find out what kind of accounting style was used.

   (b)     Refer to balance sheet for equation.

   (c)     Refer to annual report financial position and notes. Try to understand how to business is conducted financially the whole year. You can also refer to media as additional source to support this answer. First question to ask yourself, is the company report biased?  

   (d)    Refer to balance sheet, look at equity, compare the 2 and form a conclusion. First decide if this question is a fact finding or opinion type question and answer accordingly.

   (e)     Translation gain and losses, how does it arise and why it needs to be separated.

   (f)     Refer to income statement, you may answer in the form of a table with short comments. In the forum, the moderator stating that it's related to working capital, current assets and current liabilities.

   (h)     Define normal business status and what are the non cash items, compare normal businesses and actual case.

   (j)      Identify the items and make comments, it it because they bought back shares or because of dividens?

2 (a)     39 marks. 3 marks for each point asked: 1 mark for definition, 1 mark calculation and 1 mark for discussion.

   (b)     List major differences and try and relate to the take over.

ü  Formula is on textbook and table format is also ok, 1 column for each year and another column for comments. 

Citation and References

Please use Harvard AGPS style for in-text citation and references.