HC2091 Business Finance
HOLMES INSTITUTE
FACULTY OF
HIGHER EDUCATION
Assessment Details and Submission
Guidelines
Trimester T1 2020
Unit Code HC2091
Unit Title Business Finance
Assessment Type 3
Assessment Title Group Assignment
Purpose of the
assessment
(with ULO
Mapping)
Students are required to form a group of 4 members to study, undertake research,
analyse and conduct academic work within the areas of business finance covered in
learning materials Topics 1 to 10 inclusive. The assignment should examine the main
issues, including: underlying theories, implement performance measures used and
explain the firm’s financial performance. Your group is strongly advised to reference
professional websites, journal articles and text books in this assignment (case study).
The applicable Unit learning Outcomes are:
1. Research and explain the structure of Australian and International
financial
systems. Critically analyse the role of finance in business. Explain financial markets
and different types of securities and the processes related to their investment.
Interpret the impact of future developments in the financial markets on business
structure and performance.
2. Understand the concept of the time value of money and apply it in investment and
portfolio evaluation and management.
3. Identify the important factors in capital investment decisions, portfolio evaluation
and business financing activities.
4. Critically analyse finance alternatives to manage short and long term debts.
Critically understand and practice valuation of financial instruments, including
ordinary shares, preferred shares and bonds.
5. Describe the effects of interest rates on business finance. Evaluate the firm capital
structure policy and payout policy. Evaluate alternative funding policies and
instruments available to businesses including the banking sector and nonbanking
sector.
6.
Weight 25% of the total assessments
Total Marks 25 Marks
Word limit Not more than 2,500 words
Page 2 of 7
2
Due Date: Registration of groups: 5 pm Friday, Week 7 – 17th of May 2020.
Final Submission of Group Assignment: Midnight (23:59 pm.) Sunday, Week 10 –
7th of June 2020.
Late submission incurs penalties of 5 (five) % of the assessment value per calendar day
unless an extension and/or special consideration has been granted by the lecturer
prior to the assessment deadline.
Submission
Guidelines
• All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a
completed Assignment Cover Page. Please make sure that your group
member’s name and surname, student ID, subject name, and code and
lecture’s name are written on the cover sheet of the submitted assignment.
• The assignment must be in MS Word format, no spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2
cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings
and page numbers. When you submit your assignment electronically, please
save the file as ‘Group Assignment- your group name ’. You are required
to submit the assignment at Group Assignment Final Submission, which is
under Group Assignment and Due Dates on Black Board.
• Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed
appropriately at the end in a reference list using Harvard referencing style.
Submitted work should be your original work showing your creativity. Students
need to read and understand the Holmes Academic Integrity Policy before they
start any assessment. (Please refer section 4.3 Guide to Academic Integrity p27
of the Holmes Student Handbook).
• Always keep an electronic copy until you have received the final grade for the
Unit. Please make sure that you submit the correct file.
• Any appeal relating to submitting wrong files after the deadline will not be
considered.
Group Self enrolment • Please refer to the Group self-enrolment guidelines, as saved in the
Assessments folder in order to enrol into a group.
• You should not enrol into any group without the consent of the other
members. To avoid random students joining your group, you should first
decide who the four (4) members are in your group and enrol at the same
time.
• If you enrol into a group with less than four (4) members, any student can
join your group and then you have to accept that person.
•
under any circumstances.
ASSIGNMENT SPECIFICATIONS
Page 3 of 7
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ASSIGNMENT TASK
This assignment task is a written report and evaluative analysis of the financial performance of a selected listed
company on the ASX. This analysis requires:
1. Description of the company.
2. Preparation of common size financial statements.
3. Analysis of company networking capital position.
4. Analysis of liquidity and capital structure.
You are required to obtain the relevant information from chosen company annual reports and company web
site. You can access the company web site via www.asx.com.au.
To download the relevant please referee the Company code in ASX (see the following examples)
ABP Abacus Property Group
APZ Aspen Group Limited
AGL AGL Energy Limited
WES Wesfarmers Ltd
WOW Woolworths Group Ltd
(Note: The above table gives you examples only and you are not asked to choose them for the analysis)
ASSIGNMENT STRUCTURE
The assignment structure should be as follows:
Title of the assignment
Example: Analysis of ABX Company Financial Performance
Group details and the contribution of each group member
You need to give full details of all the group members in your group including their names and student IDs.
Please make sure all the names written in the assignment are matched with the group created in Blackboard.
To ensure that all students participate equitably in the group assignment and that students are responsible for
the academic integrity of all components of the assignment. You need to complete the following table which
identifies which student/students are responsible for the various sections of the assignment.
Assignment Section Student/Students
The above table needs to be completed and submitted with the assignment as it is a compulsory component
required before any grading is undertaken.
http://www.asx.com.au/
http://www.asx.com.au/
http://www.asx.com.au/
http://www.asx.com.au/
http://www.asx.com.au/
http://www.asx.com.au/
http://www.asx.com.au/
Page 4 of 7
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CONTENT OF THE ASSIGNMENT
1. INTRODUCTION
The introduction should briefly explain the purpose of the assignment, the selected company for analysis
and the type of analysis.
2. FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTED COMPANY
a. Description of the company
Prepare a brief description of the selected company (when they started, key milestones etc.), outlining
the core activities (major business, key products) competitive advantages, and the market in which it
operates (in which industry sector they are in ASZX, do they export their products and services or whether
they serve only the local market).
b. Preparation of common size financial statements for the most recent
financial year
First, briefly discuss the importance of common size financial statement. Second, prepare a
common size
income statement and a common size balance sheet based on the most recent annual report.
c. Analysis of company net working capital position
Based on balance sheet information and the notes to the financial statements,
• Analyse the working capital position of the company over minimum of past 4 years (composition of
current assets and current liabilities, changes in CA and CL, any significant decision about working
capital management etc.).
• Calculate the networking capital and give your opinion on the net working capital position of the
company (Whether the company net working capital is positive or negative, what will be the
implication of identified net working capital position on the company short term and long-term
solvency)
d. Analysis of company liquidity and capital structure using liquidity and capital
structure ratios
Using data from financial statements of your selected company, calculate the following ratios for
minimum of past 4 years and present them using suitable charts. Discuss the implications of the identified
trends for company performance.
• Liquidity ratio (calculate minimum of 2 liquidity ratios over 4 years and analyse them using suitable
charts)
• Capital Structure ratio (calculate minimum of 2 capital structure ratios over 4 years and analyse them
using suitable charts)
3. Conclusion
Based on the analysis in section 2, provide brief conclusion on the company financial performance.
4. References
Follow the Holmes reference guideline and give your reference details
(Note: You need to show all the calculations in an appendix)
All the graphs and tables should be correctly label
Graphs should have clear information (legends, axis title etc.)
Marking Criteria
Page 5 of 7
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Marking criteria Weighting
1 Introduction 2 marks
2 Description of the company including their core business activities
4 marks
3 Preparation of common size financial statements for the most recent
financial year
Preparation of common size income statement
Preparation of common size balance sheet
4 marks
4 Analysis of company net working capital position
Analyse of the working capital position of the company over minimum of past
4 years
Calculation of the networking capital and give opinion on the net working
capital position of the company
4 marks
5 Analysis of company liquidity and capital structure using liquidity and capital
structure ratios
Calculation of liquidity ratios and presenting them using suitable
graphs
Analysis of company liquidity position based on the above calculation
Calculation of capital structure ratios and presenting them using suitable
graphs
Analysis of company capital structure based on the above calculation
6 marks
6 Conclusion which is based on the overall analysis 3 marks
7 Presentation, structure and academic writing 2 marks
Total Marks 25 Marks
TOTAL Weight 25 %
it. Refer to the information on page 3 of this assignment document.
Assessment Feedback to the Group:
Feedback will be provided two (2) weeks after submission, provided that the
group assignment is submitted on time.
Marking Rubric
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Content
Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
(80%-full marks
given)
(70-79% marks
given)
(61-69% marks
given)
(50-60% marks
given)
(0-49% marks
given)
Introduction
Max
2 marks
Outstanding
introduction
addressing the
key purpose of
the assignment
and the selection
of the company.
Very
Good
introduction
addressing the
key purpose of
the assignment
and the selection
of the company.
Good
introduction
addressing the
key purpose of
the assignment
and the selection
of the company.
Satisfactory
introduction
addressing the
key purpose of
the assignment
and the selection
of the company.
No reasonable
explanation on
the purpose of
the assignment
or the company
selection.
Description of the
Company
Max
4 marks
Outstanding
analysis of the
selected
company,
targeting their
core business
and competitive
advantages.
Very good
analysis of the
selected
company,
targeting their
core business
and competitive
advantages.
Good analysis of
the selected
company
targeting their
core business
and competitive
advantages.
Satisfactory
analysis of the
selected
company
targeting their
core business
and competitive
advantages.
No sufficient
analysis on the
selected
company
targeting their
core business
and competitive
advantages.
Preparation of
common size
financial
statements for
the most
recent financial
year
Max
4 marks
Outstanding
preparation of
common size
financial
statements with
100% correct
entries in both
income
statement and
balance sheet.
Very good
preparation of
common size
financial
statements with
100% correct
entries in both
income
statement and
balance sheet.
Good
preparation of
common size
financial
statements with
mostly correct
entries in both
income
statement and
balance sheet.
Satisfactory
preparation of
common size
financial
statements with
reasonable
number of
correct entries in
both income
statement and
balance sheet.
However, there
are errors in
calculations
and/or some
missing entries.
Unsatisfactory
way of
preparation and
presentation of
common size
financial
statements.
Selected
financial
statement is the
not the most
recent once.
Analysis of
company net
working capital
position
Max
4 marks
Outstanding
analysis of
company net
working capital
with accurate
calculation and
suitable charts.
Very good
analysis of
company net
working capital
with accurate
calculation and
suitable charts.
Good analysis of
company net
working capital
with accurate
calculation and
suitable charts.
Satisfactory
analysis of
company net
working capital.
No relevant
calculation or
analysis of
company net
working capital
position.
Page 7 of 7
7
Analysis of
company
liquidity and
capital
structure
Max
6 marks
Outstanding
analysis of
company
liquidity position
and capital
structure
position with
relevant ratios.
Demonstrated
in-depth
understanding
on importance
of liquidly
management
and capital
structure of a
firm.
Very good
analysis of
company
liquidity position
and capital
structure
position with
relevant ratios.
Demonstrated
very good
understanding
on importance of
liquidly
management
and capital
structure of a
firm.
Good analysis of
company
liquidity position
and capital
structure
position with
relevant ratios.
Demonstrated
good
understanding
on importance of
liquidly
management
and capital
structure of a
firm.
Satisfactory
analysis of
company
liquidity position
and capital
structure
position with
relevant ratios.
Demonstrated
good
understanding
on importance of
liquidly
management
and capital
structure of a
firm.
Poor
understanding of
the analysis of
company
liquidity and
capital structure.
No calculation
shown in the
assignment.
Conclusion
Max
3 marks
Presenting
precise
conclusion that
exemplarily
supported by
justification and
analysis;
Presenting very
sensible
conclusion that
properly
supported by
justification and
analysis;
Presenting
adequate
conclusion that
properly
supported by
justification and
analysis;
Demonstrating
insufficient
conclusion.
Providing no
conclusion.
Presentation,
structure and
academic
writing
Max
2 marks
Demonstrated a
high level of
understanding
and skills of
academic writing
by means of
criticism, logical
argument, and
interpretation of
data and
information.
Demonstrated a
good
understanding
and skills of
academic writing
by means of
criticism, logical
argument, and
interpretation of
data and
information.
Followed given
formatting
guidelines.
Demonstrated a
reasonable
understanding
and skills of
academic writing
by means of
criticism, logical
argument, and
interpretation of
data and
information.
Partially
followed given
formatting
guidelines
Demonstrated
limited skills of
academic writing
in terms of
structure,
presentation,
wordings and
referencing.
No satisfactory
attention on
given formatting
guidelines
Failing to meet
the
requirements of
academic writing
in terms of
structure,
presentation,
wordings and
referencing.
No attention on
given formatting
guidelines
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