题目内容
Staple Group is one of Barland’s biggest media groups. It consists of four divisions, organised as follows:
– Staple National – the national newspaper, the Daily Staple. This division’s revenues and operating profits have decreased for the last two years.
– Staple Local – a portfolio of 18 local and regional newspapers. This division’s operating profits have fallen for the last five years and operating profits and cash flows are forecast to be negative in the next financial year. Other newspaper groups with local titles have also reported significant falls in profitability recently.
– Staple View – a package of digital channels showing sporting events and programmes for a family audience. Staple Group’s board has been pleased with this division’s recent performance, but it believes that the division will only be able to sustain a growth rate of 4% in operating profits and cash flows unless it can buy the rights to show more major sporting events. Over the last year, Staple View’s biggest competitor in this sector has acquired two smaller digital broadcasters.
– Staple Investor – established from a business which was acquired three years ago, this division offers services for investors including research, publications, training events and conferences. The division gained a number of new clients over the last year and has thus shown good growth in revenues and operating profits.
Some of Staple Group’s institutional investors have expressed concern about the fall in profitability of the two newspaper divisions.
The following summarised data relates to the group’s last accounting year. The % changes in pre-tax profits and revenues are changes in the most recent figures compared with the previous year.
Staple Group’s board regards the Daily Staple as a central element of the group’s future. The directors are currently considering a number of investment plans, including the development of digital platforms for the Daily Staple. The finance director has costed the investment programme at $150 million. The board would prefer to fund the investment programme by disposing parts or all of one of the other divisions. The following information is available to help assess the value of each division:
– One of Staple Group’s competitors, Postway Co, has contacted Staple Group’s directors asking if they would be interested in selling 15 of the local and regional newspapers for $60 million. Staple Group’s finance director believes this offer is low and wishes to use the net assets valuation method to evaluate a minimum price for the Staple Local division.
– Staple Group’s finance director believes that a valuation using free cash flows would provide a fair estimate of the value of the Staple View division. Over the last year, investment in additional non-current assets for the Staple View division has been $12·5 million and the incremental working capital investment has been $6·2 million. These investment levels will have to increase at 4% annually in order to support the expected sustainable increases in operating profit and cash flow.
– Staple Group’s finance director believes that the valuation of the Staple Investor division needs to reflect the potential it derives from the expertise and experience of its staff. The finance director has calculated a value of $118·5 million for this division, based on the earnings made last year but also allowing for the additional earnings which he believes that the expert staff in the division will be able to generate in future years.
Assume a risk-adjusted, all-equity financed, cost of capital of 12% and a tax rate of 30%. Goodwill should be ignored in any calculations.
Staple Group’s finance and human resources directors are looking at the staffing of the two newspaper divisions. The finance director proposes dismissing most staff who have worked for the group for less than two years, two years’ employment being when staff would be entitled to enhanced statutory employment protection. The finance director also proposes a redundancy programme for longer-serving staff, selecting for redundancy employees who have complained particularly strongly about recent changes in working conditions. There is a commitment in Staple Group’s annual report to treat employees fairly, communicate with them regularly and enhance employees’ performance by structured development.
Required:
(a) Evaluate the options for disposing of parts of Staple Group, using the financial information to assess possible disposal prices. The evaluation should include a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks to Staple Group from disposing of parts of the Staple Group. (19 marks)
(b) Discuss the significance of the finance director’s proposals for reduction in staff costs for Staple Group’s relationships with its shareholders and employees and discuss the ethical implications of the proposals. (6 marks)
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Section A – This ONE question is compulsory and MUST be attempted
Lirio Co is an engineering company which is involved in projects around the world. It has been growing steadily for several years and has maintained a stable dividend growth policy for a number of years now. The board of directors (BoD) is considering bidding for a large project which requires a substantial investment of $40 million. It can be assumed that the date today is 1 March 2016.
The BoD is proposing that Lirio Co should not raise the finance for the project through additional debt or equity. Instead, it proposes that the required finance is obtained from a combination of funds received from the sale of its equity investment in a European company and from cash flows generated from its normal business activity in the coming two years. As a result, Lirio Co’s current capital structure of 80 million $1 equity shares and $70 million 5% bonds is not expected to change in the foreseeable future.
The BoD has asked the company’s treasury department to prepare a discussion paper on the implications of this proposal. The following information on Lirio Co has been provided to assist in the preparation of the discussion paper.
Expected income and cash flow commitments prior to undertaking the large project for the year to the end of February 2017
Lirio Co’s sales revenue is forecast to grow by 8% next year from its current level of $300 million, and the operating profit margin on this is expected to be 15%. It is expected that Lirio Co will have the following capital investment requirements for the coming year, before the impact of the large project is considered:
1. A $0·10 investment in working capital for every $1 increase in sales revenue;
2. An investment equivalent to the amount of depreciation to keep its non-current asset base at the present productive capacity. The current depreciation charge already included in the operating profit margin is 25% of the non-current assets of $50 million;
3. A $0·20 investment in additional non-current assets for every $1 increase in sales revenue;
4. $8 million additional investment in other small projects.
In addition to the above sales revenue and profits, Lirio Co has one overseas subsidiary – Pontac Co, from which it receives dividends of 80% on profits. Pontac Co produces a specialist tool which it sells locally for $60 each. It is expected that it will produce and sell 400,000 units of this specialist tool next year. Each tool will incur variable costs of $36 per unit and total annual fixed costs of $4 million to produce and sell.
Lirio Co pays corporation tax at 25% and Pontac Co pays corporation tax at 20%. In addition to this, a withholding tax of 8% is deducted from any dividends remitted from Pontac Co. A bi-lateral tax treaty exists between the countries where Lirio Co is based and where Pontac Co is based. Therefore corporation tax is payable on profits made by subsidiary companies, but full credit is given for corporation tax already paid.
It can be assumed that receipts from Pontac Co are in $ equivalent amounts and exchange rate fluctuations on these can be ignored.
Sale of equity investment in the European country
It is expected that Lirio Co will receive Euro (€) 20 million in three months’ time from the sale of its investment. The € has continued to remain weak, while the $ has continued to remain strong through 2015 and the start of 2016. The financial press has also reported that there may be a permanent shift in the €/$ exchange rate, with firms facing economic exposure. Lirio Co has decided to hedge the € receipt using one of currency forward contracts, currency futures contracts or currency options contracts.
The following exchange contracts and rates are available to Lirio Co.
Currency options (contract size $125,000, exercise price quotation € per $1, premium € per $1)
It is expected that dividends will grow at the historic rate, if the large project is not undertaken.
Lirio Co’s cost of equity capital is estimated to be 12%.
Required:
(a) With reference to purchasing power parity, explain how exchange rate fluctuations may lead to economic exposure. (6 marks)
(b) Prepare a discussion paper, including all relevant calculations, for the board of directors (BoD) of Lirio Co which:
(i) Estimates Lirio Co’s dividend capacity as at 28 February 2017, prior to investing in the large project; (9 marks)
(ii) Advises Lirio Co on, and recommends, an appropriate hedging strategy for the Euro (€) receipt it is due to receive in three months’ time from the sale of the equity investment; (14 marks)
(iii) Using the information on dividends provided in the question, and from (b) (i) and (b) (ii) above, assesses whether or not the project would add value to Lirio Co; (8 marks)
(iv) Discusses the issues of proposed methods of financing the project which need to be considered further. (9 marks)
Professional marks will be awarded in part (b) for the format, structure and presentation of the discussion paper. (4 marks)
高中美术《人物抓拍》
考题回顾
题目来源：
1月7日下午浙江省乐清市面试考题
试讲题目
1.题目：人物抓拍
2.内容：
3.基本要求：
(1)根据教学内容选取一至两个知识点进行讲解;
(2)要有相应的板书设计;
(3)试讲时间10分钟。
答辩题目
1.谈一谈摄影的发展？
2.摄影的用途是什么？
Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted
Louieed Co
Louieed Co, a listed company, is a major supplier of educational material, selling its products in many countries. It supplies schools and colleges and also produces learning material for business and professional exams. Louieed Co has exclusive contracts to produce material for some examining bodies. Louieed Co has a well-defined management structure with formal processes for making major decisions.
Although Louieed Co produces online learning material, most of its profits are still derived from sales of traditional textbooks. Louieed Co’s growth in profits over the last few years has been slow and its directors are currently reviewing its long-term strategy. One area in which they feel that Louieed Co must become much more involved is the production of online testing materials for exams and to validate course and textbook learning.
Bid for Tidded Co
Louieed Co has recently made a bid for Tidded Co, a smaller listed company. Tidded Co also supplies a range of educational material, but has been one of the leaders in the development of online testing and has shown strong profit growth over recent years. All of Tidded Co’s initial five founders remain on its board and still hold 45% of its issued share capital between them. From the start, Tidded Co’s directors have been used to making quick decisions in their areas of responsibility. Although listing has imposed some formalities, Tidded Co has remained focused on acting quickly to gain competitive advantage, with the five founders continuing to give strong leadership.
Louieed Co’s initial bid of five shares in Louieed Co for three shares in Tidded Co was rejected by Tidded Co’s board. There has been further discussion between the two boards since the initial offer was rejected and Louieed Co’s board is now considering a proposal to offer Tidded Co’s shareholders two shares in Louieed Co for one share in Tidded Co or a cash alternative of $22·75 per Tidded Co share. It is expected that Tidded Co&39;s shareholders will choose one of the following options:
(i) To accept the two-shares-for-one-share offer for all the Tidded Co shares; or,
(ii) To accept the cash offer for all the Tidded Co shares; or,
(iii) 60% of the shareholders will take up the two-shares-for-one-share offer and the remaining 40% will take the cash offer.
In case of the third option being accepted, it is thought that three of the company&39;s founders, holding 20% of the share capital in total, will take the cash offer and not join the combined company. The remaining two founders will probably continue to be involved in the business and be members of the combined company&39;s board.
Louieed Co’s finance director has estimated that the merger will produce annual post-tax synergies of $20 million. He expects Louieed Co’s current price-earnings (P/E) ratio to remain unchanged after the acquisition.
Extracts from the two companies’ most recent accounts are shown below:
The tax rate applicable to both companies is 20%.
Assume that Louieed Co can obtain further debt funding at a pre-tax cost of 7·5% and that the return on cash surpluses is 5% pre-tax.
Assume also that any debt funding needed to complete the acquisition will be reduced instantly by the balances of cash and cash equivalents held by Louieed Co and Tidded Co.
Required:
(a) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the acquisition of Tidded Co from the viewpoint of Louieed Co. (6 marks)
(b) Calculate the P/E ratios of Tidded Co implied by the terms of Louieed Co’s initial and proposed offers, for all three of the above options. (5 marks)
(c) Calculate, and comment on, the funding required for the acquisition of Tidded Co and the impact on Louieed Co’s earnings per share and gearing, for each of the three options given above.
Note: Up to 10 marks are available for the calculations. (14 marks)
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