*** P4 June 2016 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

not easy, but not very hard compared to the past papers…

as is the case with all P-level papers, impossible to complete in the given time frame!

@petus1 said:
Yes, well said. wasnt hard but very very time pressured. Couldnt complete all due to time factor. If 45 minutes more then definitely the easy paper. Dont know how the examiner completes with writing so much(as per model answer) in 3 hours.

The model answers are *definitely* not written in 3 hours. Physically impossible.

I agree, it was very time pressured – almost seemed intentional; I thought the NPV was the worst for that – a *lot* to do there! If a candidate started with Q1 (logical enough) part a), and didn’t keep track of time, I think they could easily have got 20-30 mins behind schedule straight off the bat. I am usually an absolute stickler for time allocation but I couldn’t help but go 10 mins over on the NPV, and had to catch it up through the rest.

Technically, though, it was a huge relief – straightforward, I thought. The hedging question was as simple as they get.

Can anyone plse remind me of the requirement in question 1
I cant stop thinking i wish the results come out tommorrow. it is the toughest paper ive written in ACCA so far.

Q1 i was not sure how to deal with the 2 tax rates and also i went over the allocated time so i just ignored the USA rate.

Q2 gave up part b – value at risk.

Q3c not sure what the examiner wants me to do. I had an answer in my mind but thought there wouldn’t be enough time to write it down. So i just gave some ridiculous calculation there. Didn’t even use the interest rate and return rate on cash surplus.

Hope i did just enough 🙁

Honestly speaking.

Topics wise, it was quite easy, but extremely time pressured. I only could covered 82 marks worth of questions. The ones i skipped because i wasnt sure, i do not have time to come back for them! Finger’s crossed, i got a feeling i might marginally fail,

The 1st Q, i messed up the PV of tax shield , i should have used the debt capacity, but i opted for the debt financing required (part of the factory setup cost was only required in year 2)

Then for the capital allowance portion, i did a balancing allowance claim in Y4, cause they mentioned that the machine will be of negligible value, i assumed the project only last for 4 years. Then for dunno what reason, i started my capital allowance claim in Y0 (I dont know why i did that , cause i must have read it somewhere , even tho i dont know why) . Got a feeling i messed up the whole capital allowance thingy.

Had no time on the 8 marks of last part, the environmental issue and how to prevent it. I gonna regret this

I did Q2 and 3 for optional,
Q2 was really straight forward, couldnt be easier, but i only managed to do the calculations, with not much explanation or calculations, probably loses quite some marks there. VAR was straight also nt bad , but due to time limitation, i had to shortcut by not finding the accurate decimal place, i straight away took the round percentage, i calculated 97% if i m not mistaken, probably miss 1 mar there. ok, part 3, i totally skipped this, the way the questions was asked, kinda trick me a little

Q3 : OMGWTFBBQ. ok, the 1st part on advantage/drawbacks of acquisiton , i crap on the benefits as compared to organic growth etc, dunno if its relevant.
2nd part, sorry, i skipped the 5 marks, as i dont really know the impact on the PE Ratio of the acquiree, as a result of the acquisition?
3rd part: i made a mess out of it, i ended up concluding that the earnings differences is the PAT of 2 companies add up, together with the synergy 20m that they created , and additional interest (net of tax) due to additional debt financing, and lesser interest income (net of tax) due to zero cash surpluses (op 2&3). Doesnt feel right and i rushed it through, i had so many amendments, as i wasnt sure what i m doing at the start. No time to comment much, just workings to show all 3 options.

It will be a miracle, if i can pass this.

A fair paper made hard by extreme amount of time pressure. Would have been a piece of cake if not lengthy. Hoping a Pass. Good Luck All !

As with everyone above, this was a paper that was technically, quite straight forward, but was VERY time pressured. There was nothing in it that required specific knowledge (Islamic Finance / current developments / the “Greeks” etc ….), which was pleasing!

I did Q2 then Q1 and Q3.
Q2 was ridiculously easy, but i really messed up with the calculations for some reason. The answers I got just didn’t seem to make sense, however, when looking at the example in BPP, it seems to be correct. I spent too much time thinking “WTF am I doing wrong?” and actually lost 5 minutes, which meant I didn’t quite finish the very last question I did (3c).

The actual calculations in Q1, and the technical knowledge required was very straightforward. There was nothing that required much thought, but because of the vast amount of figures, and factoring in conversions and inflation, it was VERY easy to a) go off track, b) mess up the structure, c) completely miss a calculation d) over run. However, I think this is the case with most Q1s of the P papers, especially P2.
For example, when doing the APV bit for the tax shield / subsidy benefit, I forgot to convert back to dollars, and only realised when doing the discussion in part ii. Oops, but got there in the end. Discussions and Part b were relatively straightforward, although I’m sure I missed some easy marks there.

Q3 was a bit of a mind f**k in some respects. It was either ridiculously easy like Q2 was meant to be, where the calculations were quite basic and didn’t require a lot of thought, or it was MUCH more difficult than I imagined, which means I lost the best part of 25 marks! All I did was add the figures together, and adjust for cash, and gain/loss in cash deposits, and adjust for debt finance and factor in the loan required. Take away tax, add back syngergies and thats PAT. After, I took the number of shares to work out the EPS. Gearing was worked out by multiplying the PE of 14 by earnings, to get the market value of shares and dividing the debt by that figure. It seemed very basic, so I’m nervous about the method.

quynhh – for the difference in tax, this was the way I did it:
I took the proportional increase in tax, so 75% (35/20 – 1 = 0.75), and multiplied that by the actual tax paid in dinar. Then I divided by the exchange rate. This was the simplest way of doing it, in my eyes as you are going to pay 35% of profits in tax. Therefore, if you paid 20%, you owe an additional 15%, which is 75% of what you already paid.

stacky – I got 97% as well!

Overall, I think for the average person, this should have been a really good exam to sit considering the lack of intricate calculations required, and the lack of specific knowledge, and forex hedging. This exam appeared to be the opposite of yesterday’s P6 exam, which from the equivalent thread was an absolute nightmare.

It seems that the vast majority of people did Qs 2 and 3 as well!

Anyways, well done to everyone and hope we all get 50.

Did you guys use APV for Q1a)? I used APV and i think it was the right method since there was a subsidy in the loan for the required investment.

Got 4.60 for futures(considering the gain or loss and rates moved)
forward rate was 4.25 based on the relevant forward rate agreement

Couldn’t really remember the options but i action the option wen rates wen up and did not action when rates went down

Beginning of year 1 is year 0 and beginning of year 2 is yea1 so 720 goes to year 0 and 480 goes to year 1

FRA 4.25+0.5=4.75
Futurs 4.8
Option 4.9 and 3.? do not remember

Not because for the best but the FRA was 4-9 with 4.25 %. borrow from 4 months and duration was 5 months.
who remembers what has done in Q3? Please, write .