[brian001]

mykolah wrote:Hey man I feel like you have cited all my answers, around 95% of exact match!!! I noticed a lot of people here didn’t pay attention to the fact that not only BS/P&L performance was asked in the Q1, but also operational performance. Answered the same about divisional structure & centralized procurement. As well, motioned about the fact that their operational efficiency, high skilled staff are key success factors.

Hi – not sure who you’re replying to – but I spent the last sec of the exam writing answers.
Spent longer than expected trying to figure out what some questions are after & how the exhibits ties in. In practice runs generally used 40min for reading the requirements & exhibits + 2min per mark. In reality no time to review, but believe did manage to get most of the formatting of reports right.

Cheers,

[brian001]

Got the Achilles case and found the case itself to be fairly straight forward, but the amount of hints in exhibits to support the tasks appeared relatively limited which is what drives it challenging.

Task 1
– Operation – board want to ‘learn more about operation’ – felt unclear what exactly question was after. Attempted various angles including the generic strategy, porter’s value chain etc.
– Performance –
a) no price increase but increased revenue hints improvement in occupancy ratio? – driven by increase marketing spend but whether this is worth it given the already high occupancy ratio.
b) what’s driving cost increase? – poor cost control? higher depreciation as seen in increase in fixed asset?
c) higher interest > despite plenty of bank deposit > should explore why?
d) overall low level of ROE / ROCE / Profit margin, reduction in these.
– Financial position –
a) high gearing but due to nature of industry – no industry comparison.
b) strong working capital thanks to strong procurement (AP) and customer booking system (deposits)?
c) plenty of cash surplus / current ratio > can be better utilised?
Felt in general not a lot to talk about.

– Governance:
Strong points: some NED, NED in 3 committees
Weak points to improve: lack of NED, lack of risk committee, 8y board. Why independence and NED is important for good governance, in light of being a listed company. Why best to recruit NED from other industries.
– Felt definitely missed stuff for this question – could have probably talked about CEO’s role in governance maybe?

Task 2:
Options:

Started with FAS criteria then half way through realised we can also perhaps use the Ansoff matrix. Basically talked the pro/con of each Ansoff sections in conjunction of source of funding.
Recommanded the partnership approach and talked about risk of partnership.

Task 3

Role of risk manager:
– Design, implement risk control > food hygiene procedures
– Monitor risk with designing risk indicators
– Support to manage risk > e.g. press release
– Support to identify risk and advocate risk culture
– Deal with insurance comp

Also talked the catering manager is not suitable for the role as not capable of doing some of above. > probably should have talked the need for training etc.

Task 4:

Why achieving performance excellence is important for Achilles and how to use the Baldrige model to achieve this.

Mind was blank with this one as didn’t focus on Baldrige model in study and there’s barely any supporting exhibit for this.

Tried to talk about the need to explore into all areas to support strategic success – especially how Achilles is a differentiation model, model supports this by promoting integrated thinking. > Then basically tried to use common sense on how each element is relevant to the company…

Was also conscious have mis-spelt Achilles in several ways multiple times…

[brian001]

Hi Rees,

Congratulations for the high score!

I also passed with a decent score and same as you – only got SBL left to go!

Wondering if you’re keen to study together for SBL?

Cheers,
Brian

[brian001]

Guess everyone’s got different time zones – mine exam sitting was 5:30am-8:45am in GMT terms. Had tried emails etc. which none is even able to confirm whether exam’s submitted, but almost seems like trying to encourage you to withdraw it yourself so it’s no longter their issue.

[brian001]

@Tony @rapha1

What was your exam sitting time?

Havn’t received any email but my exam finished during when their system was down – the end of exam was quite abrupt and no one from email / help / call is able to confirm whether my exam was submitted. Almostly feel like whoever told you your exam was submitted didn’t actually check….

[brian001]

For Q2 with asking to prove 11%, I tried to value using PE method and back-calc for cost of equity which so happen was around 11% too, not sure if this is what they are asking for.

But for the valuation of the unit, I got drastically different answers via Aseet valuation vs Free cashflow valuation?

Got 400m + for asset valuation and 200m-ish for free cashflow, Equity beta was like 2+ and cost of equity 15%??
Asset valuation was unit’s share of non-current asset * 1.4 + unit share’s current asset???

For Q1 think got positive overall APV, not sure if the 10m sale meant there was a gain on sale of 10m given no residual value for assets, but what about those assets with no tax allowable deprecation?. The senior managers’ transition was also very confusing too – do we assume she gets paid at a rate post-inflation? (inflating 1.1m) – and still get fired at end of the project?

Appreciate any thoughts,

[brian001]

Confirming got the same situation. And if I try to login to myACCA separately it tells me can’t login.

[brian001]

Hi all,

***UPDATE – issue just got resolved for me after re-trying to log in. Hope it won’t happen on exam day & hope it’s resolved for those affected too.

Confiming having the same / similar issue here and exact same error when attempting to send message in ACCA for help.

Failed to load content
Sorry, we couldn’t load your information

Have attempted but none worked:
1) Clear Cache
2) log in via different browser
3) Checked timezone, VPN
4) Log in using a different device
5) Log in via phone

Will be doing session CBE in days – where I believe exam docket is not required, but rather logging into myACCA to launch exam is a must? (appreciate confirmation on this)

Thank you

[Author]

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