Forums › OBU Forums › RAP Topic Selection including specific current rules for Topics 8 & 15
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Anonymous.
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- February 15, 2016 at 8:46 pm #300624
Yes you can use annual reports from 12 to 14 if they publish in the month of Feb 2016. You may select any top five companies in telecommunication..
Regards,
Ali Farooq.
OBU – Registered MentorFebruary 18, 2016 at 11:19 am #300947Please see the attached link to an OBU facebook page where you will find a video by Graham Diggle, a senior OBU moderator and marker on choosing your RAP topic. No one can give you better advice than Graham as his involvement in the OBU RAP goes back about 15 years! 😀
February 19, 2016 at 5:41 am #301103Hi
I choose rogers and Bell canada for my company and comparator.Although rogers accounts are aviailable till year ended 2015 , bell’s accounts are not.They may come by march or april. Should I change the company altogether or rather wait?
February 19, 2016 at 5:45 am #301105Also according to the requirements we are supposed to choose either from
.mobile telecommunication , pharmaceuticals, or airline industry.I have chosen mobile telecom but the company(Rogers) provides other services also such as television, internet etc.Should I only use the revenue and other information only for the wireless part or should I pick the figures as is?Kindly reply ASAP.
February 19, 2016 at 10:03 am #301140Anonymous
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hi everyone
i also nee some help the mobile telecommunication companies that i want to base my RAP on , one has financial statements up to 2015 and the other they haven’t finalized their financial statement would it make sense to compare them based on FS of up to 2014.
NOTE ADDED BY TREPHENA
This topic forum should ONLY be about choosing a topic or company. We have specific forums about problems with dates etc so go to those. (You will probably find if you look in the right topic area that such a question has been asked and answered many times already!)
February 19, 2016 at 8:33 pm #301188Hi everyone,
I need to ask a few things, I was referred to ACO in my last submission, and after clarifying myself I got out of that situation but I was asked to resubmit the project and no marks were allocated. I worked on topic 8
I want to ask do I need to make the project from scratch as in topic 8 there is a benchmark for industries to be chosen from, or can I resubmit my previously prepared project.
Further more in case I need to prepare new project do I need to re write the intro and all the definitions again as my pervious project has already passed through turnitin and it might show matched content.
Lastly I want to ask that before submitting the project can students them self pass the project through turnitin or is it considered to be a bad practice?
I’ll be anxiously waiting for your reply as I want to start working upon the project for May submission
Thanks again
February 19, 2016 at 8:36 pm #301189Hi
I forget to ask one thing in my last post,
I want to choose airline industry incase I need to prepare new project, so would it be wise to worn upon etihad and emirates airlines? Or should I look for some other companies?
Regards
February 19, 2016 at 10:58 pm #301196@1529432
You should use latest available and compare latest available competitor Financial statements. For example if you have 2015 FS for company A compare its 2015, 2014 & 2013 with their last years and for competitor compare Company A 2014, 2013 & 2012 & for company B same.
You may adjust their financial statements for example for year ended June 2014 of company B, you can deduct quarter ended June 2014 from annual financial statements until June 2014 and add quarter until quarter until June 2013 for aligning year ends to company A. You should do this if you feel that there are different rules, economic situation etc, which effected during difference of 3 months.
Otherwise, you need to write different year ends under limitation of bench-marking and information gathering, also you need to tell how did you overcome this.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor.February 21, 2016 at 8:59 pm #301482You should see primary / core services of the company if it meets your requirement then you can analysis on overall basis and do not require to separate them. If You think there is a limitation you can explain in the heading of “Limitation and tell how you overcome this problem”
OBU clearly mentioned about Telecommunications Industry:
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.You can select different competitor if possible because you need the same account.
Regards,
ALI FAROOQ OBU Registered MentorFebruary 25, 2016 at 1:38 am #301925Is it acceptable to use a comparator company from a different country? I have had difficulty finding a company in Malawi especially in the telecommunications industry. The others are not listed on the stock exchange and hence refused to take part in the research.
Please help
Brigh
February 25, 2016 at 7:02 am #301945Yes, you can use company in any other company or multinational.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor.March 13, 2016 at 6:57 pm #306223I’m quite stuck on how to choose a topic. Especially if you need internal and external information. Surely you can only get internal information if you do it on the company that you work for?
March 13, 2016 at 7:30 pm #306231Should I choose this Topic or that?
Decision of selection will be based on three things:
Topic itself:
You should be interested and have proper understanding of topic, its basics to comfortably pass OBU criteria of BSc Hons. RAP. In addition, unless you don’t have sound knowledge of any area such as Working Capital, you cannot select relevant models which you clearly explain & apply for doing a critical analysis necessary for A Grade in RAP..
Organization & Availability of Information:
You must be confident that organisation you are selecting is suitable for topic and you have bunch of information available on it. Further, if you use primary data it require different referencing and questionnaires compared to secondary. If you go for topics like 8 and 15, then you will also have to look at competitor information availability for doing critical benchmark analysis.
In overall terms, look more on the area in which you have expertise and organisation on which you can easily access much information. Information that you will use must also include third party as if you use too much internal data, it may lead to a biased analysis.
It is not necessary that you can get internal information only if you are employee of organisation. You can get it from any authentic and acceptable source if they allow you to disclose it and you will also have to make questionnaires & other references on how did you get information.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor.March 13, 2016 at 7:31 pm #306232If you can please let me know here your interested topics, i will post detailed specific guidance for each topic which will help you in selection.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor.March 15, 2016 at 5:10 pm #306507Hi hope you are doing well.
i suggest students to select the following topics
TOPIC 8: Evaluation of Business and Financial Performance Over Three year period.
AND TOPIC 19
AN ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF THE FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF A MERGER BETWEEN TWO ORGANISATIONS OR OF THE ACQUISITION OF ONE ORGANISATION BY ANOTHER.Both are interesting topics and you are already familiar with them in your ACCA studies plus these topics will be helpful for you in future to get job as a Financial Analyst/Advisory Associate. Most of the companies are doing acquisition frequently these days all around the world. they are looking Financial Analyst who can join and contribute their role in acquisition.
Hope the answer of the question.
Regards,
Ali farooq
BSC Registered MentorMarch 16, 2016 at 1:11 am #306547Topic 17 has the highest pass rate – FACT! 😀
You use annual reports, corporate governance codes, sustainability reports etc (depending on the topic chosen). Neither T8 nor T17 require primary data collection. Unless you are good at statistics or operational research think very carefully about doing a topic that involves primary data collection.
I suggest that you look at the final part of my article on Evaluation and analysis on our homepage http://www.opentuition.com/obu
Evaluation is the key to passing so consider what this entails and the availability of your data and sources when selecting your topic.Good luck! 😀
March 16, 2016 at 12:14 pm #306545@brightsambo -you can compare with a South African telecomms company or another African company e.g. Safaricom. ( It is no different from when using an airline as students usually have to use airlines registered in different countries). OBU has no problem with this as long as you discuss the specific problems in your limitations.
Remember to tailor your ratios to the industry. Customer churn is something you need to look at and discuss. You might also look at how well covered areas are particularly if using companies in different countries. If the infrastructure is not so well developed and signal strength poor it will of course impact on demand. Trends in revenue and profit per customer and costs per customer if available would be useful as well as the ‘usual’ ratios.
March 21, 2016 at 2:54 am #307196Hello everyone, i have chosen topic 8 for my RAP and Pharmaceutical industry. I want to avoid complications and save time as much as i can. I want to choose an international company with same year end and financials in the same currency.
Firstly i was thinking about GSK vs AstraZeneca but the problem is that GSK’s financials are in pounds while AstraZeneca’s financials in USD when both of them are UK based
then i was thinking about Pfizer vs Merck but then again merck’s financials are in Euro. Would appreciate your help much. Thanks
March 21, 2016 at 9:27 am #307216Rehan1o1- the currency issue is not a major problem – please see my post on the forum topic RAP Topic Selection dated 10 Feb for advice on this
March 21, 2016 at 5:50 pm #307252thanks trephena, also if one comapny is following IRFS and the other one is following US GAAP would that be an issue? Please let me know if GSK vs AstraZeneca would be appropriate? thanks
March 27, 2016 at 8:19 am #308370on what basis we have to select the second company for analysis? Any listed company or the company should have a specific criteria? If there is a criteria then what is it?
March 27, 2016 at 7:37 pm #308424My recommendation for competitor selection is its listed status and company’s performance must be challenging your main company. Further, you should have its annual reports including financial statements to be provided to OBU in RAP. Comparison should be like with like with reference to operations, geography and comparing consolidated with consolidated & unconsolidated with unconsolidated accounts. Rest is your choice.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor.March 27, 2016 at 8:00 pm #308425@hammadahmedqureshi now your reply made is more complecated for me to select the second company because i want to analyse GSk who is earnring in billionsi in Pakistan where on other hand, all the listed companies are earnring in millions. :/
can you help me to select the company against GSK Pakistan? while how does this ICB thing works?
March 27, 2016 at 8:27 pm #308428@hammadahmedqureshi do you think Highnoon with Sanofi would be a good selection?
March 28, 2016 at 7:56 am #308448It is not financial numbers that you will compare but relative figures such as %, ratios, trend in performance etc. So, you can compare a million earning company with billion because a billion earning company with loss is worse than a million earning profitable company. Its about performance not numbers.
Highnoon and Sanofi is also a good choice but it all depends on you. Further, my point was that their performance challenge your main company not it should earn same.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor. - AuthorPosts
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