AFM*** ACCA P4 March 2018 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

@bshah1989 said: For what seemed to be straight forward questions I think it was a shame not to have done well. Panic city. Did anyone get the equity value of the target to be 1,556m? And was the combined equity value lower than the equity value of the main firm? Best

1,556m looks very familiar as well as value of the combined company of 14,551m from the lower reply. And yes, I obtained combined equity value lower than stand-alone value of the main firm.

Completely forgot values for both betas , cost of equity and Wacc for combined . Just cost of equity of 9% for APV question.

Thanks, good luck for your score.

@mariamal said: Dear all. Could you please tell me: How intercompany were implemented in calculation in Q1? Where 30% premium to Equity value of target had to be used? Thanks in advance! (My 1st P paper, 1st attempt. Qs attempted q1,2,4. 4th was OK. I've converted to CHF at higher of the spread of spot rates)

I used the higher rate too for the net RECEIPT of $6,8m.

This was my 2nd attempt which I found much easier that Dec'17 one. The Qs were fair and straight forward BUT time... it was an issue, have not done all, left out 20 marks yet hope the script would be enough to pass and become ACCA qualified :D Good luck to all

My third try. I believe I did better than the last two times, and predict either a marginal pass (miracle) or a marginal fail (more likely). Plan to start revising now just in case need to resit, and hope I can be diciplined about it this time.

Much better than Dec 2017 exam. Got 46 in december. Hoping to pass this time.

@cindyteo said: Wow you have good memory. Thanks!

I only have a rough idea as I set myself rough time limits for each part as I sit the exam so for the 17 marker APV for example, I gave myself around 35 minutes.

@uddinx said: Hello guys.. can anyone tell me what was the weighted average asset beta that you got ? I forgot how to do that i have no idea how.. so i just used 1.42 to proceed.. This is my last acca paper and i am completely shattered with how my exam went. The paper over all was very manageable and i had a very strong grip on all the questions.. due to time constraints i lagged behind severely. I chose question 2 and 4 as i was very good at Apv.. But sadly i wasnt able to complete that question.. I couldnt attempt around 18 marks in that question

I can’t remember the answer but you had to weight it by the market value of equity so the value you had worked out in the previous part and then also the market value of the company acquiring the other company which was given in the first paragraph. Then multiply those weighting by the asset beta of both the companies.

@irynazakliuka said: This was my 2nd attempt which I found much easier that Dec'17 one. The Qs were fair and straight forward BUT time... it was an issue, have not done all, left out 20 marks yet hope the script would be enough to pass and become ACCA qualified :D Good luck to all

Good luck Iryna, all the best hope you pass. My final exam too.

@alexcap said: Similar situation here - P4 being last exam . Also ended up with 8 mark part of APV question unfinished as run out of time. What i did was that i calculated combined asset beta by using individual asset betas ( provided), 12600 equity value of the acquirer ( has been provided either ) and equity of the target ( calculated at the 6 mark part ). ( by sticking all that into that formula similar to wacc) . Then , proceeded by calculating combined equity beta by using combined asset beta and 70:30 debt to equity ratio ( or the other way round) as it's been mentioned as applicable for the combined company . And finally calculated cost of equity and Wacc in a usual may. Not sure. That looked like the only way to me.

Yeah that’s what I did too, I spent a lot of time think the 12600 was the number of shares until I read it a couple of times though. Good luck to you.

This was my answer too. The acquisition was not beneficial to the parent company and I think Wacc was 9%. I was quite scared when some said it was beneficial

My calculated WACC was 9% too, and the acquisition was not beneficial. Should the issue with the have been included in some calculations. The value of the target was 968m, but obviously I made a mistake somewhere. I think equity was 40% for the target company.

Pretty sure it was beneficial for me With combined equity value being something like 15000m and seperate being 960m and 12600. Thus it being a gain, even after applying the 30% premium on the 960.

Could someone please confirm if you need to get at least 50% (25 marks) in question 1 (compulsory) in order to get a pass? In other words, if you get less than 25 marks in question 1 but overall it is more than 50 marks then would ACCA marginally fail you at 49 or still give you a pass?

@omernadeem said: Could someone please confirm if you need to get at least 50% (25 marks) in question 1 (compulsory) in order to get a pass? In other words, if you get less than 25 marks in question 1 but overall it is more than 50 marks then would ACCA marginally fail you at 49 or still give you a pass?

You need 50 overall, it doesn't matter how you get 50 I.e. You could fail q1 and q2 but pass q3, so you get 24/50 for q1, 12/25 for q2 and 14/25 for q3 and you would pass with 50. So as long as you get 50 overall, it doesn't matter how that is made up, of course it is easier to pass each question but doesn't need to be the case.

Good to hear this. Thank for you clearifying.