RAP Topic Selection including specific current rules for Topics 8 & 15

Dear Everyone,

OBU further explained industry sectors for Session 32, please find them below.

Students submitting for the first time in 2016 or changing topic are required to use one of these categories:

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology:
Biotechnology:

Companies engaged in research into and development of biological substances for the purposes of drug discovery and diagnostic development, and which derive the majority of their revenue from either the sale or licensing of these drugs and diagnostic tools.

Pharmaceuticals:

Manufacturers of prescription or over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin, cold remedies and birth control pills. Includes vaccine producers but excludes vitamin producers, which are classified under Food Products.

Airlines:

Companies providing primarily passenger air transport. Excludes airports, which are classified under Transportation Services.

Mobile Telecommunications:

Providers of mobile telephone services; including cellular, satellite and paging services. Includes wireless tower companies that own, operate and lease mobile site towers to multiple wireless service providers.

Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor

Dear Sir,
Thank you so much for updating. It is really helpful and informative. I decided to incorporate one year comparison because i was not aware it does effect on my grade. My goodness I just read now three year comparison will be helpful to gain higher grade.

I have a question about topic 8, i heard many student choose topic 8 and passing ratio of topic 8 is very low if this is a case please suggest me suitable topic for my Research analysis Project

Hi @Neelam,

Thank you Neelam for asking relevant question. Thank you TREPHENA for your valuable input.

Many students misunderstand about topic 8. In my field experience, most of the students asked the same question about low passing rate of topic 8. this is not necessarily the case. Get your project passed If you will critically evaluate the business and financial performance of the company and make a comparison over three year period. You just need to get the right direction from your mentor to understand the overall structure of the project and complete successfully by applying your deep research/analysis and practical concepts.

I recommend Topic 8 and Topic 19 to students, both topics are more familiar with ACCA studies and student’s experience.

Hope the answer of the question.

Regards,
Ali Farooq
BSC Registered Mentor.

@ Mr Hammad Ahmed Qureshi,

hi Sir hope you doing well, sorry for my late reply, actually concerning my question above about the published account less than 90 days note that i had gone through the audited financial report of my chosen company and i had noticed that the external auditors report had been signed on the 23rd of February for the year 2014. this means same will be apply for the year 2015 and it will be published well after 23 February 2015. therefore it will be less than 90 days. as such my comparison for my rap will be based only for 2012, 2013 and 2014. can you confirm if i am right please…thank you sir

Hi Ali,

I am more confused now because I am not able to get Etihad Airways financials. Can you suggest me a company and its competitor for which the financial statements are easily available and I can prepare my RAP?

hi am planning to submit my RAP this may for topic 8. its so refreshing to discover this website becoz its so useful.the oxford rap guide doesnt cover all the issues and jus want to express gratitude for the good work.dankie ngiyabonga thank ya!

having read the latest rap guide for topic 8 i saw the benchmarked sectors. iam having a problem not inique to me of choosing organisation. my problem is that most organisations iam encountering are groups which have subsidiaries which pperate in the benchmark sectors

can i use subsidiaries for comparison?ibstead of groups?

would any1 pleas suggest companies for topic 8 which have a good media presence as i am stuck.

Hi,

I have chosen topic 8 for my RAP.

Due to industry specific sectors i chose mobile telecommunication industry.

However I have problems in chosing my comparator.

My organisation is a foreign entity mobile service provider who is registered in Sri Lanka as a public limited company and listed in stock exchange.

Therefore the organisation has acquired subsisdiaries in Sri Lanka and is audited by the external auditors of Sri Lanka.

Hence all the secondary information is available due its listed status.

All the other mobile service provider are private companies registered in Sri Lanka whose head office is overseas.Hence the company is srilanka is merely a private company, subsidiary of the headoffice.

Therefore no individual fianncials are publicly available, only consolidated fianancials of the head office and all its subsidiaries available in there currency.

Hence comparing my orgainsation, local PLC is not probable with the other mobile service providers firstly due to non availability of fianancials and other due to being private companies.

But, there is only one PLC in srilanka which is goverment owned whose financials are publicly available. It provides mobile services, fixed telecommunications and other services.

My orgainsation is privately owned company which is PLC listed in stock exchange, whereas the comparator is a PLC owned by the goverment.

My fear is whether the comparision is possible between PRIVATE and GOVERMENT owned companies as explained above.

Eventhough my organisation fits into the category mobile telecommunication sector the comparator does not fit perfectly in the mobile telecommunication sector .

Can i continue with this?

Hi.My mentor advice me not to get a plagiarism check because these websites keep a copy of our scripts hence if we use them we will surely get in the plagiarism trouble.How true is that?

NOTE ADDED BY TREPHENA
Do not use Turnitin – you will end up with an ACO referral. If you want to use a plagiarism checker use Writecheck

I am still considering which company to choose.I have a few concerns.First that if I choose a company based in the uk say, British telecom and compare it to a Us based co. say At&T both their accounts will be in different currencies.If I can convert the pound sterlings to dollars I am afraid that the company’s performance may be undermined due to conversion and the process may become more challenging for me.

secondly There are very few listed pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan and most of them are taken by my class mates.I want to pick a company based abroad but most of those are GROUPS.hence their consolidated accounts are available but not individual.For instance Johnson and johnson. Could you recommend some companies to me or perhaps some list where I will be able to find individual companies.

@Bakhtawer

Can you please confirm from mentor why he is recommending no check? There can be a risk of plagiarism but may be he is trying to save your additional cost. As a student, you know that project is prepared by you and you did not copy paste anything, hence it is recommended to check but not compulsory. Further, don’t upload thesis on different plagiarism website, use writecheck only as it is true they keep a copy.

With regards to difference in currency, you need to translate financial statements of other company in the currency of your main company at the rates recommended by IAS 21. Also note that you should do like with like comparison. Both of your companies must operate in more than one country, it cannot be like you compare local accounts of British Telecommunication with local of US based company as both operate in different jurisdiction with different areas. However, you may compare their consolidated accounts if they are multinationals operating globally in many or some countries.

If your classmates have chosen the companies operating in Pakistan, there is no issue in choosing same company but you should ensure you keep your RAP safe and no copy by colleagues.

World’s top 10 Pharma companies:

Gilead Sciences
Byer
AstraZeneca
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck
Sanofi
Pfizer
Roche
Novartis
Johnson & Johnson

Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor.

Please note – currency translation is really an irrelevance as in most of your RAP financial analysis you should be using ratios. Think about it – the ratios help produce a level playing field. Gross profit margins need no currency translations and neither does inventory turnover or anything that can be calculated as a ratio. Use of absolute figures is both unnecessary and inappropriate in most of the report and therefore it is unnecessary to do any currency translations apart from perhaps if you are doing a direct comparison of their revenues and then you should be careful in the conclusions that you draw. Otherwise by using currency translation you could be artificially introducing a difference in the comparisons which in fact doesn’t exist. A company’s strategies are unlikely to have been decided upon by the managers by looking at the currency used by the comparator that you happen to have decided to pair it with. Therefore if the rates have shifted considerably you would be showing a comparative trend that could be based mainly on such fluctuations and this would therefore be artificial

Besides if you were trying to compare dividend payments per share for example neither the year end rate nor the average rate would be appropriate as the dividend is paid on a certain date based on the nominal value of the shares stated in the same country’s currency and normally the dividend is a proportion of that so translating it into another currency becomes a bit of a nonsense.

@Bakhtawer

I recommend you not to select the company where you have to translate Financial Statements and create unnecessary difference ultimately you may miss your main objective of BSc project. Develop your research skills and reading skills you will find number of companies in your country and abroad..

Regards,
Ali Farooq