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The hardest paper I have taken in the ACCA program but also the most interesting.
I was a prize winner of F9 but now P4 is totally different. I have a feeling that I am gonna fail or a miracle would happen with a marginal pass.
I thought the paper was fair, although I’m not sure if I’ve done enough to pass. I got half way through Q1 and moved on as I thought my calculations were wrong. I made a mess of Q3 and I just hope the marker can read it.., I crossed out so much… wasted a lot of time on it. Q4 on interest rates… I think it was ok but not sure my premium calculations were correct. It’s such a relief it’s over, I hope I don’t have to sit it a third time!
i am beginning to doubt that you can develop the skills needed for P4 by just reading P4 notes and trying out questions. i know we need to take managing money seriously, but i don’t understand why no one wants to teach us how to! do i need to pursue an MBA or become a certified financial accountant before taking this paper? how can learning about valuation be such a nightmare? the worst part is that you don’t even realise that the book is so shallow. how many other rabbit holes are there? each chapter is a whole one year course! i only wish you would provide the material, the entire ten books we need to study, then test us on not learning said material.
This is my second time round. i gave it my heart and soul. been studying since january! didnt skip any chapters, went over and over, learnt all basics, and still couldnt pick out the building blocks to form my answer with. panic sets in.BLANK.ALL OF A SUDDEN I CANT REMEMBER ANYTHING! took all my strength just to read the question.
ive never worked so hard. if you want to try this paper, don’t mess around. read the notes really fast, move on quick. be done with them within the first two weeks or so. the feeling of not understanding never goes away so get used to it. just work on questions from right now and get a plan on how to answer questions you have no idea what they are asking of you. real talk.Hi Duc, what mark did you get in F9 to be a prizewinner! Congratulations on that! I got 80 which is why I chose P4 but I’ve left it too long since sitting F9 and P4 is so much more difficult!
Pass or fail, I felt that was fairly brutal. Q1, Q3 and Q4 the hardest possible variant of those types of question. Felt like I answered the written aspects of the questions well but don’t feel happy at all with the calculations
Q3 and Q4 was ok but Q1 totally gone. I attempted only 70%.
What about you guys? 🙁Hi,
Could someone let me know how the bond valuation calc should have been done, please? I got confused.
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Q1 was a nightmare for me , question 3 was better but had plenty of tricky aspects, and q4,I’m hoping I calculated to basis right, I’m praying for the best.
Q3 was very similar to the worked eg in the technical articles on foreign invesment appraisal but i spent too long on it. Q1 was a complete disaster and totally threw me. I felt if you didn’t get the answer to the first part of the question it was very hard to answer some of the folliwing parts.
Q1 is horrible.. I thk I got 12m for the additional value created.. and sth like 20m for earnings for metaxi before acquisition then completely not able to calculate the others….
Q3 I got positive NPV in tht Bxxxxxland country… and negative NPV like $ -2xx m when I take into account the additional tax n profit on selling components in home country… the calculations look so wrong but hopefully I can get some marks for the written bits and also the workings…
Q4 the loss on futures is like 193000? And the option choice seems cheaper than future and the collar….
Everything looks so wrong tbh… how can this paper be so hard? Can anyone share what they got too?
Goodness me, I thought P2 was time pressured, P4 takes time pressure to another level!! Even with plenty of question practice – and I did plenty – there’s just too much information to register in so little time.
Time to forget about this, move on, get a life and enjoy the summer. I hope everyone else does the same! Good luck all.
I also got a negative NPV and loss on futures, although I can’t remember the amounts. I got share price in Q1 at 4.18 but thought I was miles out so I didn’t do the other calculations and consentrated on the written parts.
Total disaster for me,i got really stuck !Reading 10 hours a day and solving almost all questions of exam kit and got stuck in exams.This is unfair!Subsequently,i learnt that q2 was from an article i didn’t catch up study.In q3 i believe it was one of the hardest cases the examiner could pose!In q4 i got stuck,blame on me!Finally,q1 !How on earth can some wording alterations(compared to exam kit questions) and few 2-3 different aspects of data can destroy what you have learnt all this period of studying?I really wonder…I believe it’s unfair the theoretical part of q1 to be exclusively based on the calculations.If you did the calculations,discussion was quite easy.If not,you lose the discussion points as well so bye bye 50 marks!
P.S.
does anyone knows the correct way to calculate the percentage of share exchange in Q1?
Just to be one click better prepared for September 🙂Good luck to everyone and have a nice summer!
One stupid question …. wts the share to share option …. … how many shares of metaxi in exchange for the other company
I ran overtime on q1, did the theory bits first and then proceed to the numbers which I feel really get u sucked in. Then did q4 and proceeded with q2 attempted the theory bits barely did the numbers. I’m really crossing my fingers for a pass. Even a marginal one will do at this point. Anything more is a bonus really. This paper has been standing in the way of my membership and I still haven’t quit.
i think it was very hard paper but doable,
Q4 was ok with futures 5% cost, option 6% and collar about 7% because it felt below floor rate so had to pay back.plus easy narrative marks.
Q3 was normal NPV with some gift on narrative side.
Q1 was bad but there were easy marks such as dividend policy analysis.
calculations were bad… but narrative parts very easy.
Overall very hopeful to get 50 marks- we will see.I found the NPV question quite ok…. however after answering part a of q1 i got stuck with the calculation .. however i was able to calculate the value of Dorma co using it free cash flow to entity and the deducted the loan to get the value.
i couldnt do the number of share calculation and the percentage …..
however i made some assumption for iv and v and then based my explanation on that assumption …I also used the free cashflow to equity to calculate the cashflow remaining after cash offer
I got confused calculating the valuation for the bond and yield to maturity and therefore moved on to the discussion part …. i dont know what to expect but hoping for a pass .. though not confident@natmhl813 said:
Q1 is horrible.. I thk I got 12m for the additional value created.. and sth like 20m for earnings for metaxi before acquisition then completely not able to calculate the others….Q3 I got positive NPV in tht Bxxxxxland country… and negative NPV like $ -2xx m when I take into account the additional tax n profit on selling components in home country… the calculations look so wrong but hopefully I can get some marks for the written bits and also the workings…
Q4 the loss on futures is like 193000? And the option choice seems cheaper than future and the collar….
Everything looks so wrong tbh… how can this paper be so hard? Can anyone share what they got too?
Future seems accurate. I didn’t bother with the numerical costs coz of time issues (just work in percentage rates as it’s faster and allowed I think). But future deal was most expensive. I think that was a given because the rates fell. So options are always better when rates fall. Collar was cheaper to (only slightly…).
Not sure about the other stuff because I can’t remember what I put lol.
Very tough paper…really struggled with time management and Q1
Q4 I had option better than collar better than futures. Basis for Sep future was 0.12% (0.48*1/4) so effectively lock in rate was 4.08% (can’t remember exactly the number). I calculated all interest payment for 3 options but didn’t do the loss calculation! sugar…
Q3 so many tricks in this question, inflation calculation for sales and other costs, TP tax deductible in the sub’s CF calculation, but it need to be taxed by 25% when computing the parent’s CF, PBT from sub need to be taxed by extra 10%, loss of contribution due to setting up operation in BXXXland need to be taken into account, and on top of all these a few thing need to be translated into $ from Rupee…so time consuming! How can one do a big question like this within 45min?! I ran out of time on the first part of the question and didn’t even look at the b part….
Q1 the (a) part is 11 marks, after that it was a disaster for me… used FCF growth model to calculate the overall value of D co. I got $140 for the overall company value then I did the post acquisition: P/E*(synergy saving+PAT of D co. ) got $152 for D (maybe) … I must have made a really big mistake on the share price calculation…as I didn’t remove the loan value from the total company value! (anyone help?) Cash flow for Metaxi need to include dividend from Curis after withholding tax as well as an extra 10% tax on Curis PBT…so far here is everything I could possibly record
I praying for a pass after all these days and nights were spent on P4…
This paper has made me really sad…I was ready for it…and it’s supposed to be my last….am just so sad?
@zhangyi85 said:
Very tough paper…really struggled with time management and Q1Q4 I had option better than collar better than futures. Basis for Sep future was 0.12% (0.48*1/4) so effectively lock in rate was 4.08% (can’t remember exactly the number). I calculated all interest payment for 3 options but didn’t do the loss calculation! sugar…
Q3 so many tricks in this question, inflation calculation for sales and other costs, TP tax deductible in the sub’s CF calculation, but it need to be taxed by 25% when computing the parent’s CF, PBT from sub need to be taxed by extra 10%, loss of contribution due to setting up operation in BXXXland need to be taken into account, and on top of all these a few thing need to be translated into $ from Rupee…so time consuming! How can one do a big question like this within 45min?! I ran out of time on the first part of the question and didn’t even look at the b part….
Q1 the (a) part is 11 marks, after that it was a disaster for me… used FCF growth model to calculate the overall value of D co. I got $140 for the overall company value then I did the post acquisition: P/E*(synergy saving+PAT of D co. ) got $152 for D (maybe) … I must have made a really big mistake on the share price calculation…as I didn’t remove the loan value from the total company value! (anyone help?) Cash flow for Metaxi need to include dividend from Curis after withholding tax as well as an extra 10% tax on Curis PBT…so far here is everything I could possibly record
I praying for a pass after all these days and nights were spent on P4…
I also got $140m for the Durma firm value and $152 after taking into account the cost savings. And I made the same mistake: forgot to minus the debt to get equity value. That’s why my Durma share value was so high, $2.88.
But how could we calculate the market value of the $60m bond then? I remember that there is no info on the cost of debt to calculate market value. Or just assume that market value = book value ?
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