MSL Bank Corporate Lending Essay For AGL Energy Limited.

You are an employee of MSL Bank, a major Australian financial institution. Currently employed in MSL Bank’s corporate banking division you are part of a small team responsible for managing the bank’s relationships with major corporations. Such relationships can include providing lending facilities, trade finance, money market and foreign exchange services, transaction facilities including payroll and electronic banking services for the corporation’s client relationships. From interest income and fees for service the institutional banking division is able to generate a healthy contribution to MSL Bank‘s annual profit. MSL Bank is keen to expand its presence in the corporate banking sector of the financial system, and has been actively seeking new corporate clients.

While it seeks to win new business MSL Bank executives have determined that its traditional conservative approach to accepting risk will not be compromised. Accordingly, any facility approved outside MSL Bank lending policy must contain a clear rationale for acceptance of the business including all aspects outlined in Section B. Approval for such facilities can only be given by the MSL Bank Credit Committee, comprising the Chairman and 3 other non-executive board members.

Corporate Lending Teams at MSL Bank has been given responsibility for reviewing and assessing the new lending applications recently received. Recently, your team has been asked to provide the lending submission for AGL Energy Limited. Your recommendations in the written lending submission will go to the Directors Credit Committee for approval or rejection. MSL Bank uses a standard format for the lending submissions (see below).

Section C: Prospective Client – Submission received for Analysis

Name of the company: AGL Energy Ltd 

Website: www.agl.com.au

Lending request: $20 Million to upgrade infrastructure

The request for funding is hypothetical, although your lending submission is based on a real company. The predominant source of information for your lending submission will come from the company’s website. However, teams are expected to obtain relevant information from other sources when providing an analysis of the operations of the company in question. Reference to industry association reports and commentary about industry analysis provided by other reputable sources is an expectation of the Credit Committee of MSL Bank.

Use the 2017 ANNUAL REPORT for your lending submission: (http:// www.agl.com.au/about-agl/media-centre/asx-and-media-releases/2017/august/agl-2017-annual-report))

When analysing the historical financials the Credit Committee requires the use of data from the last THREE years (2017, 2016 and 2015).

The MSI bank has developed a new target of creating new business relationships. One of the methods to build business relationships is through financial lending. The bank therefore mandated a group to create a report of lending clients. Under this mandate, the group received a lending request from the AGLC energy company. The group, therefore, developed a project report on the same. The project report followed the company’s strict rules of lending in determining whether the company was fit to borrow.

The team has recently received a lending application from the AGL energy company. They have provided various submissions. This submission has helped the group in developing the report. The report includes a recommendation that will help the company’s manager make a right decision regarding lending the AGL energy company (Muller 2017).
Address of the company
699 Bourke St, Docklands VIC
3008, Australia.

From the submissions given the company was able to develop the following background information from the lending company.

The AGLC public company. The company has its central headquarters in Melbourne (Muller 2017). It was founded in 1841. It is an energy retail company that supplies power to various parts of the country. It currently collects revenue of about 12.6 billion Australian dollars. The net worth of the company is about 6.14 billion Australian dollars. The company relies on various sources to retail electricity (Manivasakam 2016). The company retails electricity from hydro, geothermal, thermal and wind-generated energy. It is the leading source of energy power in Australia. The company supplies 61% of Eastern Australia. The company sells gas, solar PV and other sources of energy.

The company has 175 years of experience. It was awarded a royal charter to light the streets of Sydney. The company first began by storing gas in holder tanks. The company later converted the gas to natural gas 15 years later. The company diversified officially into retailing electricity when they bought Lo Yang Power Station.
They later owned Kiewa hydroelectric power scheme. The company through this move had improved their supply of electricity and gas in the east of Australia. The company later emerged with Alinta Company. This was a move that helped the company develop its retail and infrastructure division. The merger also helped the AGL Company penetrate Western Australia.

Major shareholders of the company
The company has the following shareholders.
Table showing shareholders of the AGL Company.

https://www.4-traders.com/AGL-ENERGY-LTD-6499237/company/

The company has many beneficiaries. They share up to be shareholders. Therefore, the shareholders in the table given are the beneficiaries.

Project Brief

The company engages in different projects that will help in developing their millennium goals (Ouyang and Lin 2015). They are focused to expand its wind project to accommodate most of the places. The company plans to double its current electric capacity supply to 10000MW. This is possible after having discovered more natural sources in the region that can produce a lot of power and sell the energy to the AGL Company (Cox 2018). They are also hoping to use the carbon coal to produce gas in the near future. This will see the expansion of the revenues that the company is seeking to make.

The International electric project in Sydney was delayed to poor relations with the local government (Graham and Williams 2014). Further consultations are being done to consider if the place can be used for the project again. The kindergarten building plant was delayed to land issues. The land issues were to be sorted by the government. The original landowners are seeking the government’s compensation. The Sydney power station still needs funding to continue.

The company, however, have invested in the digital expansion of electricity to rural parts of the continent who need it. The rural market constitutes on 7% of the continent supply cumulatively. These contribute about 10 % of the company’s total revenue. The company is looking forward to this number as it is too low (Kazemilari, Mardani, Streimikiene and Zavadskas 2017).

The companies have several sections. All the divisions coordinate to the benefit of the company. The first section is the operation section. Led by an operation director. It oversees all the engineering operations of the company. The second section is the development unit, directed by the development director. This section oversees all the projects by the company. They are supposed to maintain and manage all the projects that the company is putting up. The third section is the business unit. Led by a business director. This section oversees all the business negotiations between the company and other stakeholders (Holstenkamp and Kahla 2016). The regulatory and corporate affairs division. In charge of this division is the corporate affairs director. The division oversees all the quality assurance and safety of the company. Keeping in mind energy distribution and management can be dangerous and hazardous. Legal affairs division led by the legal affairs director is the next division. The division oversees all the laws that govern the company’s operation. It is even in charge of the contract administration to the employees (Kindström, Ottosson, and Thollander 2017). Other divisions include; the finance division, the security division, and the human resource management division.

Prospective Client - Submission received for Analysis

The company has well-structured management and employee operation. Led by a capable board that selects a CEO. The current CEO of the company is Mr. Andrey Vessey. The CEO is followed by sectional managers. These managers have various directors in their subsectors. The directors have supervisors and team leaders working under them. The permanent employees work under a team leaders. Lastly are the contractual workers. The company has a total of 3304 employees as of 2018.

Lending history

The borrower has a lending history with our bank (MSL bank Corporation). It is two years since we lend a total of 6.3 million Australian dollars to the same company. According to our documents and their submissions they qualified for the amount. In that case, the reason for the lending was quite apparent. The company was seeking to expand its market consumer in the rural parts of the continent. The project according to the previous submission lacked adequate capital to be completed. The project went well after the funding and has since increased the revenues collected.

The company returned the money after 12 months. With each month collection of 11% interest. The payment went well all through the 12 months as agreed during the borrowing time. Currently, the company has no debts unpaid with any financial institutions including ours. The company, therefore, has a good borrower history.
Income generating activity

The company generates revenue from various activities. The company sells electricity, natural gas, and other energy-related products to the consumer markets. The company is currently selling 3.7 million customers. They also engage in the spread of renewable energy. These include hydro, wind and solar system. The company engages in gas storage operations for other company who pay them also.

The primary income generating activity for the company is selling power. The other events are also income generating. Such include. Selling shares, engaging in other contracts and business engages with liked minded companies.

The individual behind the borrowing

The finance and project team have developed a budget for the full implementation of this plan. The budget costs up to 20 million dollars. The 20 million dollars they seek to borrow from us (MLS BANK) for their project. They are promising to adhere to our interest rates and our terms. The rest of the conditions are supposed to be discussed with other stakeholders with a further report.

The project as submitted has been assessed by their experts. They hope it will improve their profits margin and their revenues. The revenues for the company mainly come from the selling of power energy to consumers. The consumers pay for power according to the rates at which the consumer uses. The leading companies are factories and industries that use vast amounts of power for distribution.

Further Information

The company is seeking to use technology as a way of embracing transformation. The company is planning to engage in the use of smart products. The use of smart products that include smart cards, intelligent items, and smartphones is a move to influence the new set of companies. The customers are mostly the youth. The youth according to research are easily influenced by the smart products.

According to their managing director Mr. Rowels. The firm is seeking to improve its second half of the year revenue collection and profit margins through this method. The company has achieved their half year goals by increasing revenue; they are now focusing on the new project.

The manager further acknowledges that. This project will expand the market for the company. The endorsement will lead to increased consumers that translate into revenue. These, as noted by the manager, is one way of winning the consumers over their competitors.

The company uses marketing strategies that are unique to it. These strategies help them overcome some of their competitors who include; The France electric, Viesgo, First energy and Wester energy.

Key characteristics of the company

The marketing strategy used that is unique to the AGL company include;

The Burning Platform

This marketing strategy involves getting what the consumer needs most and giving it to them. The consumers need a stabilized energy deliverance which is what the company strives to offer its customers. The strategy also involves being alert to emergencies and responding well. These together with kick-starting projects leads to territorial expansions that keep them a notch above their competitors.

Implementing the G to G transformation

This is the second marketing strategy used by the AGLC energy company. This is a strategy where the primary focus is based on three critical pillars. The three posts are planning for capital, regulatory management, and excellence of operation. This strategy depends on the company analysis of the market. They then plan for it correctly with the available capital. The management then comes up with a way of implementing the needs through proper set-out regulation. All this procedure is done in excellence yield the market result expected. It is this market strategy that the company has used in borrowing the money from the bank.
The company has changed over the years. They have been employing different planning at different stages. These have happened until they have reached where they are currently. Their first focus was an effective delivery of projects through execution of plans. This stage is where they set up projects like; the power station project.
The company then moved to seeking stakeholders and financiers for the company. These went on successful, as they got stakeholders starting from the government to interested individuals.

Name of the Borrower

The third stage where the company is at the moment is further expansions and implementing marketing strategies. This will even lead to maximizing value for the energy company. The strategies employed led to the company achieving different milestones. In 2015 the company completed the single largest geothermal power distribution plant. During the 40 months financial crisis, the company contributed the largest amount to the government.

Competitive nature of the industry.

The company borrowing as mentioned earlier is an energy company. The committee went ahead to determine the nature of the industry. The energy is slightly competitive based on the issues that will be discussed. The group was therefore forced to look deeper into the quality of the sector of the company borrowing. Being an energy company, we (MLS) analyzed the competitive technical nature of the energy industries.

The energy industry is competitive especially now that the company is seeking quite a new adventure.

Barriers regarding entry protocol. It is challenging to infiltrate the rural market. This is because the areas too have existing energy companies probably owned by their government. The government who is in charge of licensing can decide to deny the company operation license. These make the industry very competitive.
Energy distribution depends on natural resources. The natural resources are scarce. The increase in population increases the demand for energy. The energy companies will go any extra mile to produce energy for their customers. The companies, therefore, compete for the resources to satisfy their members. This makes the market extremely competitive.

Environmental issues. The development of agencies that defend the pollution of environment has made the industry even more competitive. These agencies advise people on non-environmental hazards in producing energy. This includes the use of the solar system and hydro systems. These narrow the industrial gap, therefore, increasing competition. As more people engage in using the natural system of energy, they abandon other forms of energy. All the other companies must, therefore, compete for the few remaining population. These increase the competitive nature of the industry.
The nature of the customers. Most customers believe in industries that stayed longer in the industry. This makes it difficult for the new industries. The new companies, therefore, develop ways of infiltrating the market. Some go to the extreme extends of reducing the market costs of energy products they provide. These comparatively, makes the energy industry very competitive.

State of the economy and the industry

Background Details of the Company

The introduction of technology into the system has made it very difficult to determine common market trends. The technology can be used for the right or wrong purpose. Some companies use technology for advertisements and endorsement. Therefore, is not a bad thing to the industry? The use of technology to tarnish the name of another company is terrible. The introduction of technology has created access to any information without verification, if its false information that affects the customer, it narrows the market, making the industry very competitive.

The nature of the products. Most energy products are the same. Example of petroleum and electricity. These products by being the same are complicated to advertise to the customers. For a company, therefore, to get a breakthrough, in the market they have to get a unique style of packaging their products differently. With the increase in such companies, it is difficult to find the originality that will make the market use the company’s product. These, therefore, makes the market very competitive.

Industrial Risk

The group then looked at the chances that the company was going to engage in and ways they could avoid such risks.
Government policy. The company is seeking to go regional. At the middle of the investment. The governments might legislate a policy that impacts on the procedure of putting up the technological advancement and endorsement (Carlton and winter 2014). By then it might be very late to reverse the project. The project shall have taken a lot of finance and input (Berger 2015). This is one of the risks might face.

Shortage of product. The energy distribution depends on the amount of energy supplied. The energy can be so much so that it used in supplying, the newly identified region. This is done through the setup of the power plant (Bertay, Demirgüç-Kunt and Huizinga 2015). The risk is what if the investment undergoes a poor receipt from the target population. This will have wasted all the financial and time input wastage into the project. The only helping option would be the investing in more than one smart product. Research should be conducted so that the endorsement is successful.

Partnering risk. These are risks that come up abruptly caused by politic reasons for example, during the set-up of the project. The partnering companies might withdraw from the contract. These will slow down the project, therefore reducing the impact that the company has predicted regarding revenue and profit. This, therefore, makes politics one of the risks.

Major Shareholders of the Company

Plant breakdowns. The power plants are difficult to put up. They cost a lot of financial and time to put up. If they are not put up correctly, they might waste the whole fund's project. The project may, therefore, may end up negatively, if the plant experience any installments problems, the company will have lost a lot.
Regulatory risk. The government might regulate the policy of technological endorsement. This would be a move to save the government interest. The purpose of putting investing in the technology will be lost. This will, therefore, be wastage of the resources used (Dewachter, Iania, Lyrio and Perea 2015). The revenues and the profit margin will, therefore, be meager than the ones predicted and expected. This makes the regulatory issue one of the possible risks.
Inadequate stakeholder involvement. The stakeholders should be involved in the management of the program. Insufficient involvement of other stakeholder is a risk. The setting up of the project depend on all the stakeholders forsake. If one of the managing directors is less involved. The people who are the peak of management, should, therefore, include all the other stakeholders.

The AGLC energy company is not likely to face this risk and competition identified above. This is because they have a proper strategic plan that exploits all these risks and their possible solutions. For example, the company has had the CEO employ short-term contractors who conduct surveys on how the target population will receive the smart products (Lee 2015). The company also has a laid-up strategy that involves all the stakeholders.

The vertical analysis for the AGL Company includes the three main assets that they have. Vertical analysis also considers the company’s liabilities. The balance sheet analysis of the company as assessed by the group gives the following conclusion. The cash and cash equivalents are worth 3 million Australian dollars. The inventory totals 9million Australian dollars. Therefore according to the vertical analysis of the firm, they have assets at 15%, 40%, and 45% respectively. The cash and short-term investment of the previous year are at 53.17 %. Other receivables stand at negative rates of 1.57%. The total assets that include; tangible assets return on average and total asset growth. All these assets have a cumulative return rate of 3.71%.

Short-Term Liquidity

From the liquidity ratio analysis carried out by the group, the AGL company can pay its current liabilities about it’s a current asset. The current ratio of the liability to assets of the AGL Company is 1.95. Calculated as

Liquidity = liability/assets
Total liability = 5268.6
Total assets= 2699.8
5268.6/2699.8 = 1.9514

The outstanding daily sales of the company show that the company is doing extremely well. The company even after endorsing the collect payment method, receives a whopping 56.7% of the total sales. This capital is very high. The short-term liquidity of the AGL is therefore very high. Calculated quarterly the higher percentages show that the AGL Company seems to take quite a longer period before collecting payment.
Long-Term Solvency
The financial leverage of the AGL Company being used on financial debts is very low. Both the long and short-term debts of the company are very low. Records show that a falling debt to equity ratio of 2:5. These, therefore, shows that the AGL company is still better placed to take debts. The debts will not be expensive to the profits received.
Calculated as below
Leverage = debt/equity
Debt =103
Equity =247.8
Leverage=103/247.8
Leverage=4:10 =2:5
The group also compared debts to the assets of the company. The ratio of the assets that have been made with financed debts is at 3.81%. This percentage is meager thereby reducing any financial risks.
Calculated as debts / total assets %
Debts= 103
Assets= 2699.8
103/2699.8
=3.81

Finally, the group measured the company’s ability to meet the interest rates on its debt with its operating income. This ratio was calculated by determining the earnings before interest and the total taxes. Surprisingly the ratio was at 2:1. This is a very high ratio that proves the company can cover its interest expense without any financial risks.
Calculated as earnings before interest rates/ total taxes
Earnings before interest rates= 494
Total taxes= 208
494/208=2.375:1

Profitability

The company announced from its half the year report double profit margins. The net profit has increased by almost half. The underlying profits were up by a margin of 56 percent. This is after excluding year one of the items.
The profit increase reflects growth in wholesale marketing. The profit margin by being so high qualifies the company for the lending.

The profit margin was calculated as gross profit/ net sales %
Gross profit= 214.4
Net sales and revenue =380.7
214.4/380.7= 56%


Security

Bankruptcy test

The group used the Altman score. From the Z score analysis, the AGL Company had a Z score of 6. This shows that is not likely to go bankrupt any soon. The company, therefore, will not need to sell stock to solve any financial problems. The investors in the company are also sure of good returns.

Major Beneficiaries of the Company

The group still used Altman’s score to determine and predict the financial crisis. From the calculations done the group has no reason to believe a crisis would occur. An analysis of the credit market has shown that the company is above 70% of the total number of companies. This, therefore, proves that there is little danger of the crisis. This analysis is based on the financial meltdown of AGL and the credit market.
The Bank should therefore not fear any default from the AGL Company.
The margin of the overall security
The assets provided in the submission amount up to 43.2 million dollars, which is 30 million dollars above the required amount. The second way out can be the government since they are the highest shareholders of the company (Vogel 2014).

The advantage of the assets way out.

In this case, the lender qualifies for lending since the security of the amount borrowed is proven beyond doubt. The borrower has had a previous good history that therefore built trust in the company.

Recommendations

Strength and weakness of the borrowings
Based on the analysis of the project and the company (Lucas 2017). The group has the following definite recommendation for the borrower (the energy company).
Based on the industrial analysis the company is doing well and qualifies for the amount asked for.
Based on the financial report, the company qualifies for the amount asked. However, the risk assessment causes a few doubts (Dissanayake, Xia and Wu2015 2017). The borrower should, therefore, be given the amount of the following covenants.

Covenants

• The company will maintain an interest cover ratio of 6.3% every quarterly of a financial year.
• The company will not give any debts above this one unless the debt is cleared.
• The company should adhere to the interest rates properly.
• The company can reconsider the amount if the project proves to be wanting more.
• The company should acknowledge the interest rates and propose any better one if they have a problem with the proposed one.
• The dividends should be paid at the end of six months after the borrowing. The threshold will be after 12 months.

Proposed facility

About the proposed technological advancement, the group recommends that; the proposed project is perfect if implemented according to plan. It is very likely to increase the profits and revenues of the company (Mehreen and Underschultz 2017). The company though should conduct last and final field research that will determine the gaps identified in this report. The group, therefore, render the rest of the decision to the main board for further action.

A few other projects had begun but were delayed due to various reasons

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