BE300-4-FY/5

UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

1ST YEAR EXAMINATIONS 2020

QUANTITATIVE METHODS AND FINANCE

Time allowed: 24 hours

Time to spend on your assessment: 2 hours

Maximum word count for assessment: 2000 words

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The paper consists of 4 questions.

Candidates must answer 2 questions: 1 from Section A and 1 from Section B.

All questions carry equal weight.

An equation sheet is provided on page 6.

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SECTION A

Answer ONE question from Section A

QUESTION ONE (COMPULSORY)

a) Assume that a bond will make payments every six months as shown on the following timeline:

i) What is the maturity of the bond (in years)?

(8 marks)

ii) What is the coupon rate (in percent)?

(10 marks)

iii) What is the face value?

(7 marks)

b) Suppose that Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) issued a two-year bond with a face value of $1000 and an annual coupon rate of 6%. The yield to maturity on this bond when it was issued was 5%.

i) What was the price of this bond when it was issued?

(10 marks)

ii) Does this bond trade at a discount, at par, or at a premium?

(5 marks)

iii) Assuming the yield to maturity remains constant, what is the price of the bond immediately before it makes its first coupon payment?

(10 marks)

[TOTAL 50 MARKS]

END OF SECTION A

SECTION B

Answer ONE question from Section B

QUESTION TWO

a) Define the term investment. Provide an example of (i) securities investment, (ii) short-term investment, and (iii) long-term investment.

(10 marks)

b) Assume that you buy 2 shares of Facebook Inc. at $220 per share, putting up a 50% margin.

i) How much equity funds do you need to provide to make this margin transaction? What is the borrowed amount in this transaction?

(6 marks)

ii) If the stock price falls to $200 per share, what is your new margin position?

(6 marks)

iii) What is your rate of return (return on equity) in (ii)? What would your rate of return in (ii) be if the transaction was without margin (100% equity)?

(12 marks)

iv) Explain the main advantages and disadvantages of this margin transaction for you as investor.

(16 marks)

[TOTAL 50 MARKS]

QUESTION THREE

a) Define the terms return and risk. What is the relationship between an investment’s return and risk?

(16 marks)

b) Given the data below, find the average return and standard deviation of return for security A:

Year

Return on security A

2017

10%

2018

12%

2019

14%

(12 marks)

c) Assume that security B has an average return of 16% and a standard deviation of return of 3.3%, and that correlation between security A in (b) and security B is -1. Calculate the average return and standard deviation of return for a portfolio 50% invested in security A and 50% invested in security B. Comment on the result.

(22 marks)

[TOTAL 50 MARKS]

QUESTION FOUR

a) Danny is considering a stock purchase. The stock pays a constant annual dividend of $2.00 per share and is currently trading at $20. Danny’s required rate of return for this stock is 12%. Should he buy this stock?

(15 marks)

b) Procter and Gamble (PG) paid an annual dividend of $1.72 in 2009. Danny expected P&G to increase its dividends by 8% per year for the next five years (through 2014), and thereafter by 3% per year. If the required return on P&G’s stock was 8% per year, use the dividend valuation model to estimate its share price at the end of 2009.

(25 marks)

c) Danny expects that P&G’s competitor, Estée Lauder (EL) will pay a dividend of $2.72 per share at the end of this year and $2.99 per share next year, and its stock price is expected to grow to $53.72 in two years. If the required return for Estée Lauder’s stock is 11.1%, what price would he be willing to pay for a share of Estée Lauder’s stock today, if he planned to hold the stock for two years?

(10 marks)

[TOTAL 50 MARKS]

END OF SECTION B

END OF QUESTION PAPER

Equation Sheet

PLEASE SEE NEXT PAGE FOR THE ANSWER SHEET

ANSWER SHEET

(please use as many sheets as you need to)

Please enter your Student Registration number here:

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DEGREE: B.Sc. ACCOUNTING, AUDITING AND FINANCE / BBA

College of Banking and Financial Studies

SEMESTER: Spring 2020

Student Name

Student Number

Semester

Spring 2020

MARKS

100

Weightage

50%

Unit title

Financial Management (UG 038)

Exam Paper Issue Date

May 14, 2020

Type of Assessment

OPEN BOOK EXAM

Submission Deadline

May 24, 2020

Assessor:

Dr. Anand S. / Ms. Marium Hussain

Internal Verifier:

Dr. Salman Nusrat

Instructions to candidates:

1. This assessment is Open Book exam which is a substitute of your Final exam. It is to be completed Individually.

2. Kindly include your Name and Student Number in the heading page above.

3. This Assessment accounts for 50% of the total marks available for this Module.

4. Answer all the questions.

5. You are expected to show all your workings clearly wherever needed.

6. Please start each answer on fresh page.

2. Plagiarism is a form of cheating in which students use the work of others and present it as their own. Do not allow another student to copy your work and then submit it under their own name. The college considers this form of cheating as a serious offence.

7. This assessment is mostly based on computations, implications, consequences, viewpoints, critical analysis and case study questions. Please limit your discussions, viewpoints or critical analysis around 1200 words. All your calculations should be shown in full into the main body of your answer.

8. Please be aware that your work will be submitted through Turnitin. You must only submit your own work including correct citations and references for any external materials used in your work.

Class ID: 24155846 Enrolment Key: Sem2

Section A – THREE questions (compulsory) to be attempted 60 marks weightage

1. You have been provided Income Statement and Financial Position Statement of Oman Cement Company SAOG for the year 2018 and 2019 in separate columns. You are required to evaluate the Working Capital position of this company for the year 2018 and 2019 based on following calculations:

(i) Liquidity position of the company (current ratio and quick ratio). What is your view about status of liquidity position of Oman Cement Company?

(ii) Cash Operating Cycle in a tabular form (as shown in ppt slide number 10 of working capital management) and present Cash Operating Cycle in a diagram for both years separately (as shown in class ppt slide number 9 of working capital management).

(iii) Based on the above calculation, give your overall view on working capital situation of Oman Cement Company between the year 2018 and 2019. What are your suggestions to Oman Cement Company for strengthening Working Capital Management? (5 + 10 + 5 = Total 20 Marks)

2. “Hassen Constructions SAOG”, the company is situated in Al Khuwair. The organization is specialised in the manufacturing of building materials that are used in construction sites.

Currently the company’s capital structure (total capital) is ungeared. However, the owners of Hassen constructions is planning to change their capital structure into a leverage (geared) capital structure as they believe having a debt component in its capital structure will be beneficial to the organization.

The company total capital is RO 300 million which is an equity-based capital structure. The company has two share buyback options available to move into a leverage(geared) capital structure.

Option 1

The company has an option in converting 30% of its equity capital to debt capital at an interest rate of 7%.

Option 2

The company has an option of converting 50% of its equity capital to debt capital at an interest rate of 7.5%

To evaluate the impact on the alternative policies the financial accountant of the company has presented the following data to evaluate the impact on ROE in the current capital structure and the above two given options.

The financial accountant believes that based on the sales forecast the sales could be either weak, average or strong. The probability for the market to be weak is 0.3, average 0.5 and strong 0.2.

The profits before interest and tax (PBIT) , if the market is considered to be weak is RO 30 million, if the market is average the PBIT is 50% greater than the market is weak and if the market is considered to be strong it is 75% greater than if the market is average.

The current applicable tax rate is 25%

Required:

a) Calculate expected annual return on equity (ROE) under each option (the current, option I and option II)

b) Calculate expected average annual return on equity (ROE) considering all options together.

c) Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of Hassen constructions in to changing their capital structure from and equity based to leverage. And, advise which of the three options (current or option I or option II) that Hassan Construction SAOG should go for under a normal situation? And substantiate your advice with suitable reasons.

d) Evaluate the factors that Hassen construction should consider when evaluating its capital structure policy. (10 + 4 + 3 + 3) = Total 20 Marks)

3. Scenario analysis

(i) You are leading a role of Chief Financial Officer of a Cement Company in Oman. Your company has huge current profit of RO 10 million and presently having a plan to capital investment of RO 8 in the next financial year. The company is willing to continue capital structure of debt 25% and Equity 75% in the future. How much of the RO 10 million should your company pay out as dividends? And what would be the dividend payout ratio of your company?

(ii) In case you retain huge amount of profit of your company for long term investment, what financial decision do you take – to pay high cash dividend? Or to issue bonus share (stock dividend)? And explain why?

(iii) Presently, your company’s Face Value of Equity Share RO 10 and Market Value of your Share in MSM is RO 25 per share. In order to increase the trading volume and market liquidity of your company stock, will you suggest the management to go for stock split? Explain your management about concept of stock slip with the advantage of splitting the stock of your company with the current scenario.

(iv) Given the current scenario COVID 19 and its impact on Cement sector in the near future, what are the factors that you consider affecting the dividend policy of your company? Critically evaluate and justify.

(5 + 4+ 4 + 7 = Total 20 marks)

Section B- ONE question (compulsory) 40 marks weightage

4. Salalah Chemical Company is considering two proposals for long term investment. Both will operate for 5 years, but due to limitation on capital the company can accept only one out two projects. The following information is available relating to :

Initial investment

Methanol project

Fertilizer Project

RO

RO

(100,000)

(100,000)

Operating Profit before depreciation year 1

60,000

54,000

Operating Profit before depreciation year 2

50,000

46,000

Operating Profit before depreciation year 3

40,000

40,000

Operating Profit before depreciation year 4

30,000

36,000

Operating Profit before depreciation year 5

25,000

25,000

Scrap value at the end of 5 years

10,000

10,000

The company’s standard payback period is 2.5 years and standard ARR is 12%. The cost of capital is 10%?

Required:

(i) Calculate Accounting Rate of Return for both Methanol and Fertilizer project.

(ii) Calculate Payback Period of Project Methanol and Fertilizer.

(iii) Calculate the NPV of Methanol and Fertilizer project.

Year

1

2

3

4

5

PV Factor @ 10%

0.909

0.826

0.751

0.683

0.621

(iv) Calculate Profitability Index for both projects.

(v) Calculate IRR of Methanol and Fertilizer project

· NPV is negative RO 1,956 @ 40% for Menthol Project

· NPV is negative RO 5,359 @ 40% for Fertilizer Project

(vi) Present the overall results of above in a table and recommend one best proposal to management. Give recommendation for your recommendation.

(10+6+8+3+9+4 = Total 40 Marks)

Financial Management (UG 038) – OPEN BOOK EXAM – Spring 2020 Page 8

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