Module: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Lecturer: MSc. Ngo Nguyen Bao Tran
Academic Year: 2023 – 2024
ASSIGNMENT 1
(Weight: 15%)
This individual assignment has been designed to allow you firstly to revise and
demonstrate your understanding of the key financial issues relating to Topic 1 -
Introduction to Financial Management, secondly to apply and develop your
knowledge of Financial Analysis from Topic 3.
This individual assignment will be assessed by 5,000 words (+- 10% penalty) in
the written part and by recording presentation. It is required to choose an
organisation in HNX or HOSE. Your assignment will be built in forms of report and
consistently work on your selected organisation.
Please notice that no single plagiarism point is accepted. You will not be graded
once detected either plagiarizing or applying such IT support as ChatGPT.
There are 03 parts of this assignment required to be accomplished. In which, Part
1 and Part 2 are included in your written assignment, and Part 3 is your recording
presentation.
Part 1: Company background demonstration (10 points)
In this session, you are require to demonstrate the background of the chosen
organization. This session should include the answers to at least the following
questions:
1. Demonstrate background and history of your chosen organization. This
section should include the answers to at least the following questions: (5pts)
General nature of the chosen organization’s business (retailing,
manufacturing, or service); What are its products or services?; How did
the chosen organization get to the point where it is today?; What industry
does the chosen organization operate in, and what are the industry-wide
trends?
Analyse internal and external environment which affect the business as a
whole
Who are the major competitors in your industry?
What are the chosen organization’ growth opportunities and its
profitability?
2. Critically evaluate strategic objectives (Vision, mission, goals, and strategic
priorities) and core values of your chosen organization. (1pts)
3. Identify and critically evaluate forms of business organization of your
chosen organisation. (2pts)
4. Using your understanding about agency theory, determine potential agency
problems and carry out a critical assessment in the context of your chosen
organization. (2pts)
Part 2: Company financial health analysis (70 points)
In this session, you are required to analyse the chosen organi zation’s
financial health and to gain additional insights into the company’s performance,
then recommend reasonable alternative courses of action to improve the health
of the company by following below steps:
Step 1: Firstly, acquire the chosen organization’ financial statements for 03
continuous years (income statement, balance sheet) to allow a year-to-year
comparison of the financial statements (income statement, balance sheet). Secondly
obtain data for the companies’ key competitors or data about the industry. You will
show several years of data for the illustration of some specific facts in the company's
financial history and industry trends. (5pts)
Step 2: Quickly scan all of the statements to look for large mo vements in
specific items from one year to the next (For example: Did revenues have a big
jump, or a big fall, from one particular year to the next? Did total or fixed assets
grow or fall? Big changes in margins?). If you find anything that looks unusual,
research the information you have about the chosen organization to find out why.
Review the notes accompanying the financial statements for additional information
that may be significant to your analysis. (5pts)
Step 3: Examine in details the balance sheet. Look for large changes in the
overall components of the company's assets, liabilities or equity. (For example:
Have fixed assets grown rapidly in one or two years, due to acquisitions or new
facilities? Has the proportion of debt grown rapidly, to reflect a new financing
strategy.). If you find anything that looks unusual, research the information you have
about the chosen organization to find out why. (5pts)
Step 4: Examine in details the income statement. Look for trends over time.
Calculate and graph the growth of the following entries over the past several years.
Revenues (sales)
Net income (profit, earnings)
Are the revenues and profits growing over time? Are they moving in a smooth
and consistent fashion, or erratically up and down? (5pts)
Step 5: Calculate on financial ratios (Liquidity ratios; Financial leverage (debts)
ratios, Coverage ratios, Activity Ratios and Profitability ratio) for each year.
Demonstrate the meaning of each financial ratio and give your comments on the
chosen organization’s financial condition (20pts)
Step 6: Conduct the financial trend analysis for the chosen organization by
analysing the company’s financial condition and performance over the last three years
and comparing the ratios with those of the competitors or the industry. (15pts)
Step 7: Demonstrate your financial analytical comments on the financial health
of the chosen organization and suggest reasonable recommendations for to improve
the financial performance of the chosen organization. (15pts)
Part 3: Presentation (20 points)
You are required to prepare a slide for your written assignment and present it via
MS Teams, then record the presenting file and submit.
