ACC351 Financial Management

Assignments should be presented appropriately in line with the restrictions stated above; if an assignment exceeds the time/word count this will be taken in account in the marks given using the assessment criteria shown.

You are required to select a London Stock Exchange quoted company (other than Kier Group plc) which operates in the construction or outsourcing sectors, as the subject of this assignment. Then, prepare an academic paper, in which you critically analyse and evaluate the financing of your chosen company. Your paper should be divided into three sections as follows:

a)A systematic and critical review of the types / sources of finance that are available to a stock exchange quoted company operating in the construction or outsourcing sectors, including a discussion of the merits of raising debt versus equity. 

b)A critical analysis and evaluation of your chosen company’s financing structure over the last 5 years, as indicated by the company’s financial statements. 

Note: In order to fully answer this question, it will be helpful to distinguish between the funding strategy (what the company was seeking to achieve) and funding structure (the products / sources of finance actually used to implement that strategy).Consideration of changes in the company’s share price is expected.

c)Briefly explain and justify any changes to your chosen company’s financing structure, which you would have recommended had you been an adviser to the company.

The marker will take a holistic view of the entire script, but would expect the available word count to be allocated approximately in proportion to the percentages indicated against each section above.

Additional guidance:

Your paper should include a title page on which you include your Student ID (number) and exact word-count. A contents page and executive summary are not required.

Your paper should be supported by references to academic papers, textbooks, journals and internet sources, in accordance with ‘good academic practices’. Internet sites such as Wikipedia and Investopedia are not regarded as appropriate academic sources. The reference list is not included in the word-count.

All information for which you are seeking to earn marks must be included in the main section of your paper. Supplementary information may be presented in an appendix, but will not earn marks, and is not included in the word-count.

Assessment criteria

1)Selection and discussion of an appropriate range of financing techniques / products available to a stock exchange quoted company operating in the construction / outsourcing sector.

2)Analysis and evaluation of the chosen company’s financing structure.

3)Effective communication of findings and recommendations.

Detailed guidance on the interpretation of these assessment criteria is provided on the last page of this document.

Learning Outcomes

This assessment will enable students to demonstrate in full or in part the learning outcomes identified in the unit descriptors.

Late Submissions

Students are reminded that:

i.If this assessment is submitted late i.e. within 5 working days of the submission deadline, the mark will be capped at 40% if a pass mark is achieved;

ii.If this assessment is submitted later than 5 working days after the submission deadline, the work will be regarded as a non-submission and will be awarded a zero;

iii.If this assessment is being submitted as a referred piece of work then it must be submitted by the deadline date; any Refer assessment submitted late will be regarded as a non-submission and will be awarded a zero.