Can you help me with my Financial Assignment? You need to do from number 5 to number 13.
Financial Information for Decision Making (ACC10007) Group Assignment – Coles Group Semester 2, 2021
Due date: Friday 22 October 2021 at 11:59pm (Week 11)
Submission: Online via Canvas (late assignments – penalty 1 mark per day)
GENERAL
Students are encouraged to commence this assignment as soon as practicable, noting that the analysis of financial statements using appropriate ratios is covered in week 7 & 8. This is a group assignment (maximum of four students) and is not to be undertaken independently.
During analysis, students are encouraged to look beyond COVID as the obvious reason for changes in ratios. Adhering to only ‘COVID’ as the cause for changes in the ratios will not qualify as well-rounded analysis. Please research and include other reasons in your analysis.
REQUIREMENTS
• You are required to undertake financial statement analysis on Coles Group and prepare a written report (3,000 words) - see required structure below.
• Use the data from Coles Group’s financial statements to undertake financial statement ratio analysis – see below.
• Your report must incorporate financial statement analysis that examines the profitability, asset efficiency, liquidity, capital structure (solvency) and cash flows of Coles Group.
• Your report should cover a 3-year period for the periods ending 2019, 2020 and 2021 and should be sufficiently broad in scope to demonstrate your understanding of findings, following the analysis.
• The Coles Group Annual Reports can be downloaded via Canvas.
• Please use the correct Annual report as indicated:
- Use 2021 Annual report ONLY for all values for 2020 and 2021
- Use 2019 Annual report ONLY for all values for 2018 and 2019
(Please do not alter the approach, so as to maintain consistency across all calculations)
REPORT STRUCTURE
1. Title Page
• Title of your report
• Group allocation (i.e., Name of tutor, time and day of tutorial, Group number)
• Student names and I.D.
2. Declaration and Statement of Authorship (See Appendix A)
3. Group Assignment Contract (See Appendix B)
4. Group Contribution Table (See Appendix C)
5. Executive Summary
• A brief discussion of the aim and scope of the report.
• A brief discussion of the company.
• A brief discussion of key findings and recommendations.
6. Company and Industry Background
• Brief company profile of Coles Group – include its history, financial highlights, and other relevant company information such as when and where it started operations; any major expansions and acquisitions from then to now; types of products/services it offers, significant business relationships.
• Industry – includes identifying which industry it operates in, an understanding of the state of the industry and identifying major competitors.
7. Ratio calculations (to be included in Appendix)
The minimum ratios to be calculated for each of the 3 years (2019, 2020 and 2021) are:
• Profitability o Return on Equity o Return on Assets o Gross Profit Margin o Net Profit Margin o Cash Flow to Sales
o Asset Turnover
• Asset Efficiency o Days in Inventory o Days in Debtors
o Activity Cycle
• Liquidity o Current Ratio o Quick Ratio o Cash Flow Ratio
• Capital Structure (Solvency) o Debt to Equity Ratio o Debt Ratio o Equity Ratio o Interest Coverage
o Debt Coverage Ratio
All detailed ratio workings should appear in the appendices and not in the body of the report – See Appendix D for suggested format for the ratio calculations. You can, however, present the ratio answers in tables in the main report (Section 8) to assist your analysis, but do not include your detailed workings/calculations in Section 8.
• Please use the correct Annual report as indicated –
- Use 2021 Annual report ONLY for all values for 2020 and 2021 https://www.colesgroup.com.au/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/ir5sKeTxxE
Ondzdh00hWJw/file/Annual_Report.pdf
- Use 2019 Annual report ONLY for all values for 2018 and 2019 https://www.colesgroup.com.au/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/ir5sKeTxxE
Ondzdh00hWJw/file/Coles_Annual_Report_2019.pdf
(Please do not alter the approach, so as to maintain consistency)
7.1. Assumptions and other useful information for calculating ratios:
• Provide 2 decimal points for your final ratios.
• Ratio formulas to be used as per the Week 7 and 8 Lecture Summary Videos.
• Use Trade & Other Receivables shown in the balance sheet when calculating Days Debtors.
• Financing costs = interest
• Sales = Sales Revenue
• Use Statement of Profit or Loss (Income statement), Statement of Financial Position (Balance sheet), Statement of Cash Flows to obtain relevant values for calculations.
• Assume that 10% of sales are credit sales.
8. Analysis and interpretation of financial ratios
• Based on the financial reports and other information, undertake financial statement analysis and interpretation that covers the prior three financial years ending 2019, 2020 and 2021, concentrating on the following aspects:
• Profitability
• Asset Efficiency
• Liquidity
• Capital Structure (Solvency)
• Please note that analysis does not mean just restating the ratios or their formulas you need to discuss the reasons why the ratio changed and its implications.
• Your analysis should incorporate benchmarking such as comparison to competitors and industry averages.
9. Analysis and Interpretation of Cash Flow Statements
• Your analysis should also include a review of Coles Group’s operating, investing, and financing cash flows over the three years. Consider absolute figures, trends and any relevant ratios to assist your analysis.
10. Assessment of other relevant information
• An assessment of other information, including non-financial, that is relevant to the assessment of Coles Group. For example, global events, industry developments and issues, unusual or one-off events, structural changes to the company such as changes in board composition, mergers or acquisitions, economic factors, charities etc. and any other relevant issues which may potentially impact on the operations of the company.
• Consider also its environmental and social performance.
11. Summary and conclusion
• Based on your analysis and findings, summarise Coles Group’s current financial situation, consider its potential outlook and make any recommendations.
12. Appendices
• Ratio calculations/workings, etc.
13. References
It should be in adherence to Swinburne Harvard style referencing: https://www.swinburne.edu.au/search?collection=swinburnesearch&query=swinburne+harvard+style+guide
SUBMISSION CONSIDERATIONS
• Word limit 3,000 words (excluding tables, graphs and appendices, title page, executive summary and bibliography).
• This assignment (including the Group Assignment Contract) is worth 20% of your final assessment.
• The report must be the work of the group and any material used from other sources (particularly reports from banks, investment analysts/brokers, etc.) must be acknowledged and appropriately referenced.
• Where any student in the group has previously undertaken work in relation to the nominated company for assessment in another subject, this needs to be discussed with the Unit Convenor before any work commences.
• The report format and structure, spelling, grammar and punctuation will all be considered.
• All references should be appropriately acknowledged.
• Other types of useful information may be available from the following sources:
• DatAnalysis Premium – A Database accessible through Swinburne Library, useful for ASX Announcements, company history, annual reports, directors and management, etc.
• Industry Context: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), IBIS (Swinburne University Library has access to some but not all ABS and IBIS information);
• Market: Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) www.asx.com.au.
• Newspapers: Australian Financial Review, other newspapers and business publications.
• Newsletters issued by stockbrokers and fund managers.
• Note: Students are not expected to purchase industry or company specific reports from commercial suppliers. Only resources which are available through Swinburne University Library or on corporate or other websites (or other media such as Newspapers electronically available for example) and which are free of charge are expected to be used.
• Only one submission per group is required. Submission instructions will be provided on Canvas.
• No extensions will be considered for the assignment submission due date unless a written request is submitted to and agreed by the Unit
Convenor. A penalty of 1 mark per day late will apply to late assignments
HELPFUL HINTS
Use of figures and tables in analytical reports
• While we encourage the use of figures and tables to help embellish a report, it is important to bear in mind that they should not overshadow the substance of the report. Indeed, a report which consists predominantly of figures and tables with very little explanatory text would not have addressed the analysis component from an assessment perspective. Students should consider placing large items of data in the appendices and referring the reader to these sources of information when required.
• Note however, that it is not sufficient to refer the reader to an appendix without citing the appropriate detail. Take for example, a report which has a large appendix (at the end of the report) showing all the ratios calculated for the company over a three-year period, and one ratio in particular; ROA has declined considerably during that period. It is not sufficient for the analyst to state that “the ROA has deteriorated significantly over the three-year period as shown in Appendix…..”. The detail of the movement must be stated, for instance, “ROA has deteriorated significantly from ……% in …. (Year), to …..% in ……. (Year)’.
• Students can then either refer the reader to the appendix after each calculation or preferably make a reference to the appendix at the start of the analytical section. For example, at the start of the profitability analysis section, the following statement might be appropriate: “For detailed calculations relating to the following analysis, refer to appendix…….”.
Note also that if figures and tables are used in the body of the report, students must also cite the relevant data (numbers, ratios etc) in the body of the report and additionally make reference to the table. For example, “Table 1.3 shows that ROA has deteriorated significantly from ……% in ….(year), to …..% in …….(year)’. Adhering to only COVID as a cause for changes in the ratios will fail to qualify as well-rounded analysis. Please research and include other reasons in your analysis.
• Please refer to Canvas for a detailed marking rubric.
Appendix A Declaration and Statement of Authorship
All students must agree to the following declaration when submitting assessment items
1. I/we have not impersonated, or allowed myself/ourselves to be impersonated by any person for the purposes of this assessment.
2. This assessment is my/our original work and no part of it has been copied from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made.
3. No part of this assessment has been written for me/us by any other person except where such collaboration has been authorised by the lecturer/teacher concerned.
4. I/we have not previously submitted this work for a previous attempt of the unit, another unit or other studies at another institution.
5. I/we give permission for my/our assessment response to be reproduced, communicated, compared and archived for plagiarism detection, benchmarking or educational purposes.
I/we understand that:
• Plagiarism is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person as though it is your own. It is a form of cheating and is a very serious academic offence that may lead to exclusion from the University.
• Plagiarised material may be drawn from published and unpublished written documents, interpretations, computer software, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, and ideas or ideological frameworks gained through working with another person or in a group.
• Plagiarised material can be drawn from, and presented in, written, graphic and visual form, including electronic data and oral presentations. Plagiarism occurs when the origin of the material used is not appropriately cited.
I/we agree and acknowledge that:
1. I/we have read and understood the Declaration and Statement of Authorship above.
2. I/we accept that use of my Swinburne account to electronically submit this assessment constitutes my agreement to the Declaration and Statement of Authorship.
3. If I/we do not agree to the Declaration and Statement of Authorship in this context, the assessment outcome may not be valid for assessment purposes and may not be included in my/our aggregate score for this unit.
Penalties for plagiarism range from a formal caution to expulsion from the university, and are detailed in the Student Academic Misconduct Regulations 2012.
Signatures:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Appendix B
ACC10007 - Group Assignment Contract
1. Group Allocation:
2. Group Membership:
Please complete for all group members in the team
Name: Email: Phone Number: Core Strengths
3. Group Goals:
Our group goals are:
•
•
•
•
4. Group Expectations and Agreements
All group members commit to being good team members and working as a great team by:
•
•
•
•
During group meetings and in tutorials with group time we expect group members to:
•
•
•
•
With regards to all assignment work we expect group members to:
•
•
• •
5. Group Contribution Rationale
How does your group agree to attribute level of contribution by group members?
(For example, you group should map out what does 0%, 25%, 50%,75%,100% contribution mean to your team)
Level of Contribution Agreed Meaning of Contribution (actions, behaviours, outputs)
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
How will your group manage any conflict around this process?
Appendix C
Group Contribution Table
The Group Assignment requires your team to complete the following table listing the group members who contributed and the agreed level of contribution by all group members. (If all group members contribute equally it is assumed the level of contribution would be listed as 100%)
Group Member Name Level of Contribution (0100%) Comments
As an example – if team “Ace” receives a score of 80% for their group assignment – and all team members saw a 100% contribution level recorded, then all team members would receive the full 80% team score. A team member who had a 50% contribution level recorded would receive an adjusted mark of 40% (50% of the 80% team result). As a formula the individual mark received for a team assignment is:
Individual Mark = (Level of Contribution) * Group Mark
Appendix D – Suggested Ratio Calculation Table
Detailed ratio calculations…include in an appendix. This will be a rather long table with many numbers and formulas
Ratio 2019 2020 2021
Profitability
ROA = write the formula Substitute values from annual report and show workings and get the FINAL
answer Substitute values from annual report and show workings and get the FINAL
answer Substitute values from annual report and show workings and get the FINAL
answer
Solve all profitability ratios with detailed workings like above and move on to the next one…
SAME as above
SAME as above
SAME as above
Cover all ratios under efficiency, liquidity, Capital structure in a similar format showing detailed working and final answer
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