FINC6007, Semester 2, 2018

Individual Assignment – Weighting 20%

Due Date: 21st September 2018 - -4pm

The project involves writing a commentary on Warren E. Buffett's Berkshire shareholder letter. The
project is to be completed individually. Shareholder letters (1977 - 2017) will be randomly selected and
assigned to students. These assignments are on BlackBoard under the “assessment” tab.

You can download shareholder letters from http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html

Task Description

1. Analyse the general structure of the shareholder letter and comment on Buffett's strategy for
handling fund manager - investor relationship.

2. Comment on Buffett's investment portfolio selection. You may make reference to the concepts we
have identified in class. You may apply a historical view to analysing Buffett's investment decisions
(Were they good decisions? Why?).

3. Criticise Buffett's shortcomings/ignorance in his shareholder letter. Try to improve his fund manager
- investor relationship management by adding/changing part of shareholder letter.

4. Comment on and explain financial tables/statements in shareholder letter. Visualise this data when
applicable. Why did Buffett choose to present these tables/numbers? What is significant about them?

5. Analyse the relationship between a successful fund manager and his invested companies with
reference to the shareholder letter.

6. Does Buffett say anything about his investment philosophy? How would you encapsulate that
message?

Deliverables

Each individual will need to submit a report of no more than 6 A4 pages including appendices,
figures and references. It is suggested that any figures/tables are mixed with your discussion section.
However, you must remain within the page limit above.

Please use 10 point font and standard page margins as when you open word.

Please note that page limits are strict and material in excess of these limits will not be marked. These
limits do not include the cover page. All work will have to be submitted through TurnitIn as per
university policy. Please ensure to indicate any “quotations” in “” marks.

To aid in structuring the report, please see the marking guide below. Students should understand that
this is an indicative marking guide so you should not be restricted to the following criteria.
Assessment Criteria

1. Appropriate content and range of ideas.

2. Understanding of the context in which the report is written (both historical and relationships
between the parties).
3. Originality.
4. Reflection/Evaluation of the strategies employed.
5. Initiative in responding to the assessment questions in an imaginative and independent way.

Other important information relating to this assessment includes:

 Submission deadline: 21st September, 4pm.

 Penalties for late submission apply; These will be assessed as a deduction of 10% of the
available mark per day late. For example, a submission at 5pm on the 22 nd of October will be
penalised 10% and a submission at 5pm on the 23 rd of October will be penalised 20%. As such,
a student scoring 90/100 for an assignment submitted 2 days late will receive 80% of 90 = 72%
 For each page that exceeds the page limit, not only will it not be marked but 10% of the
available mark will be deducted off your final mark.
 Any assignment choosing to analyse a different year than the one allocated on blackboard will
receive a 50% penalty to the available mark.

If you have any further questions about the group project, please consult staff in class time or leave a
post on Blackboard.