Financial and Managerial Decision A2
This is a group assignment which is an element of assessment for this subject. You have formed groups of between three to four people. The organisation you will study will be Marks and Spencer plc. A business report is expected, with an executive summary, introduction, headings for sections and a conclusion.
You have just joined a firm of consultants who have been tasked with tracking the profitability and liquidity of Marks and Spencer plc, as requested by a client. Your report must contain the following;
Executive Summary (which must be a summary of the whole report, and can therefore only be written at the end)
Introduction
Explain what makes financial statements useful and relate three aspects of the latest available financial statements (of the organisation you are studying) to the current regulatory regime.
From the published financial statements extract profitability and liquidity ratios for the past five years.
Compare, contextualise (using the mnemonic COPIED) and interrelate the above ratios with historical data and with competitors and the industry taken as a whole, wherever possible.
Interpret these ratios in relation to the environmental factors within which the organisation operated
Based on the above analysis and information gleaned from the media and other relevant sources forecast the profitability for the year ending 28 February 2023 and the liquidity on that date.
Conclusion (evaluating the validity of the assumptions and methods used and the reliability of the forecast profitability for the year ending 28 February 2023 and forecast liquidity situation on that date).
