TASK DESCRIPTION :Assignment ONE

TASKS

Using a company listed on the London Stock Exchange that is agreed with your Lecturer:

1. Analyse the changes in financial performance (both strategic and operational) critically over the last five years. Relate these changes to the following areas:
   • Liquidity,
   • Profitability
   • Working capital management
   • Capital structure management
   • Stock market performance.
2. Explain any problems or limitations of your analysis.
3. Make recommendations for any improvements to the areas listed in (1) above

LENGTH REQUIRED

3000 words +/- 10%.  Any deviation from this will be penalised.

FORMATTING AND LAYOUT

Please note the following when completing your written assignment:

1. Writing: Written in English in an appropriate business/academic style
2. Focus: Focus only on the tasks set in the assignment.
3. Length: 3000 words
4. Formatting: Typed on A4 paper in Times New Roman or Arial font 12 with at least 2.5-centimetre space at each edge, double-spaced and pages numbered.
5. Document format: Report
6. Ensure a clear title, course, and name or ID number is on a cover sheet and a bibliography using Harvard referencing throughout is also provided.
7. Research: Research should use reliable and relevant sources of information, e.g., academic books and journals that have been peer-reviewed. The research should be extensive.

The use of a range of information sources is expected – academic books, peer-reviewed journal articles, professional articles, press releases and newspaper articles, reliable statistics, company annual reports and other company information. All referencing should be in Harvard style.

marking criteria and Student FEEDBACK – Assignment One

Common Assessment Criteria (applied to all parts of the project)	Marks available	Marks awarded
1. Research-informed Literature: Extent of research and/or own reading, selection of credible sources, application of appropriate referencing conventions.
Inserting your references (quality texts and published articles) into the appropriate places in the text. Listing these at the end of the report (Harvard Method)	10
2. Knowledge and Understanding of Subject: Extent of knowledge and understanding of concepts and underlying principles associated with the discipline.
Demonstrating insights into selected academic concepts and models. The relevance of these in the context of the set questions.	10
3. Analysis: Analysis, evaluation and synthesis; logic, argument and judgement; analytical reflection; organisation  of ideas and evidence
Critically analyse the changes in financial performance (both strategic and operational) over the last five years. Relate these changes to the following areas: :Liquidity, Profitability, Efficiency, Capital structure and Stock market performance	50 (10 marks for each area of analysis)
4. Practical Application and Deployment: Deployment of methods, materials, tools and techniques; application of concepts; formulation of innovative and creative solutions to solve problems.
Applying the finding of the analysis in order to provide valuable and meaningful solutions and make recommendations to your chosen organisation. Problems, limitations and assumptions of the analysis Recommendations for improvement.
	20
5. Skills for Professional Practice: Attributes in professional practice: individual and collaborative working; deployment of appropriate media; presentation and organisation.
Written in report style. Directed at your reader(s) and flows well throughout, overall Presentation	10
TOTAL	100

 

Assignment Mark (Assessment marks are subject to ratification at the Exam Board.  These comments and marks are to give feedback on module work and are for guidance only until they are confirmed. )	Late Submission Penalties (tick if appropriate)		%
	Up to One week late

 

TASK DESCRIPTION: Assignment TWO

TASKS

Long term finance may be generated internally or externally by companies.

Required:

1) Critically evaluate five different sources of external finance that are available to a public listed company. Identify and explain what considerations may be taken into account by the Board of Directors when choosing the type of financing to use.

2) Explain the term weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Critically evaluate the view that the WACC is affected by the long-term sources of finance employed by a listed company.

 

LENGTH REQUIRED

3000 words +/- 10%.  Any deviation from this will be penalised.

Please note the following when completing your written assignment:

1. Writing: Written in English in an appropriate business/academic style
2. Focus: Focus only on the tasks set in the assignment.
3. Length:3000 words
4. Formatting: Typed on A4 paper in Times New Roman or Arial font 12 with at least 2.5-centimetre space at each edge, double-spaced and pages numbered.
5. Document format: Report
6. Ensure a clear title, course, and name or ID number is on a cover sheet and a bibliography using Harvard referencing throughout is also provided.
7. Research: Research should use reliable and relevant sources of information, e.g., academic books and journals that have been peer-reviewed. The research should be extensive.

The use of a range of information sources is expected – academic books, peer-reviewed journal articles, professional articles, press releases and newspaper articles, reliable statistics, company annual reports and other company information. All referencing should be in Harvard style.

Marking criteria and Student FEEDBACK – Assignment 2 Two

Common Assessment Criteria (applied to all parts of the project)	Marks available	Marks awarded
1. Research-informed Literature:Extent of research and/or own reading, selection of credible sources, application of appropriate referencing conventions.
Inserting your references (quality texts and published articles) into the appropriate places in the text. Listing these at the end of the report (Harvard Method)	10
2. Knowledge and Understanding of Subject:Extent of knowledge and understanding of concepts and underlying principles associated with the discipline.
Demonstrating insights into selected academic concepts and models. The relevance of these in the context of the set questions.	10
3. Analysis:Analysis, evaluation and synthesis; logic, argument and judgement; analytical reflection; organisation  of ideas and evidence
For the 5 methods of funding critically discussed.   WACC and its link to the sources of finance. What types of risks are associated with the WACC? Illustrations to explain this may explain this further.	35. (7 marks for each source) 25
4. Practical Application and Deployment: Deployment of methods, materials, tools and techniques; application of concepts; formulation of innovative and creative solutions to solve problems.
Applying the concepts/ models in order to provide valuable and meaningful solutions and make recommendations.	10
5. Skills for Professional Practice:Attributes in professional practice: individual and collaborative working; deployment of appropriate media; presentation and organisation.
Written in report style, Directed at your reader(s) and flows well throughout and overall Presentation	10
TOTAL	100

 

Assignment Mark (Assessment marks are subject to ratification at the Exam Board.  These comments and marks are to give feedback on module work and are for guidance only until they are confirmed. )	Late Submission Penalties (tick if appropriate)		%
	Up to one week late

 

GUIDANCE FOR Students IN THE COMPLETION OF TASKS

1.  Research-informed Literature

Your work must embed and be informed and supported by relevant and credible scholarly material that is accessible in the learned journals listed on the module schedule.  You should refer to at least ten such sources.  Additionally, you should refer to text books, current news items and benchmark your organization against other organizations to ensure your assignment is current and up-to-date.  High-level referencing skills using the Harvard Method must be demonstrated throughout your work and all sources listed alphabetically within your bibliography.

2.  Knowledge and Understanding of Subject

Your work must demonstrate the growing extent of your knowledge and understanding of concepts and underlying principles associated with the subject area.  This means that within your work, you should provide evidence of your growing mastery in the critical awareness of current challenges, new insights and the constant need for innovation within the field.  Furthermore, a critical awareness of the ambiguities and limitations of knowledge and even understanding should be considered and examples of such, illustrated within your work.

3.  Analysis

To be considered masters worthy, your work must contain evidence of analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.  This means not just describing “What!” but also justifying: Why? How? When? Who? Where? And at what cost!  At all times, you must justify your arguments and judgments.  Evidence that you have reflected upon the ideas of others on matters occurring in the real world of business is crucial to you providing a reasoned and informed debate within your work.  Your choice of methodologies to gather data and information must be rigorously defended.  Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you can make sound judgments and convincing arguments in the absence of complete data, since, within the real world of work, we rarely have access to, or know all the information!  Persuasive conclusions are especially necessary and must be derived from the content of your work – there should be no new information presented in your conclusion.  Your work should aspire to resemble work which is of journal publishable quality.

4.  Practical Application and Deployment

It is essential that you rationalize how you decided upon certain methods, materials, tools, and techniques to inform and complete your work.  You must demonstrate what informed your decision(s) to apply certain concepts that enabled you to formulate innovative and creative solutions to the challenges presented to you or that you identified for yourself.  Plausible, costed and justifiable recommendations are demanded, and where these are absent, your work is undermined.  Your work should provide evidence that you are growing in mastery in developing cutting-edge processes and techniques within the subject area.

5.  Skills for Professional Practice

Your work must provide evidence of your attributes in the application of professional practice.  This includes demonstrating that you are highly capable of individual and collaborative working.  Regarding the presentation of your work, you must demonstrate your ability to select and deploy the appropriate media that is “fit for purpose. Additionally, you must exhibit your ability to: communicate with an exceptionally high level of professionalism; work professionally, autonomously and within a team; develop leadership skills; and produce/present work that is coherent, cogent and specifically addresses the challenges set for you or you have set yourself. Importantly, your work should be easily understood by specialists and non-specialists in the field.