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I am comparing two companies. Both are US based. In one’s report the name of the entity is “XYZ inc. and its subsidiaries” while the other has two annual reports. one named “ABC inc.” and the other named “ABC group”.
Please guide me as to which two to compare in for me to make an apple to apple comparison?
Inc is the equivalent of company so you either have to compare at the company “Inc” level or Group level (Inc stands for incorporated )
@trephena – thanks so much for your guidance….
Hi,
I was searching a suitable competitor for Samsung electronics which is the basis of my RAP.I am conducting research on topic no 8( Financial and Business analysis of a company). I found out that SONY and other companies like Toshiba, Panasonic( these have got similar business structure) all have march financial year end, where as Samsung electronics has December year end. Can anyone guide me how to use the data for ratio analysis. Is it possible to deduct the annual figures[finanacial statements] from the previous quarterly[ Q1,Q2 and Q3] reports to get the last quarter figures ?
Thanks!!
Hi,
I am conducting research on topic no 8. The company i have chosen adopts IFRS whereas all major competitors use US GAAP.I understand that I can use them by explaining the limitations.However I am unsure about how much descriptive should it be.
And, there is one company which uses IFRS but does not operate in one of the business segment as the main company.The segment comprises around 22 % of total revenue and more than 40% of operating profit.
I am confused which one should I pick up as a competitor.Thanks!!
@accadubaistudent – sorry I am away at the moment and unable to answer queries in detail. I have reposted your queries to this forum as you will probably find answers to similar queries if you look back through the posts
please help i am in a foreign country having difficulties in finding the organization to use for my OBU. Are they any international organization that i can use.
You can use any organisation provided the information is publicly available in English. The same also applies to the comparator company
You now need to use an OBU listed mentor (otherwise you CANNOT submit your work) so you will need to go on the OBU mentoring website to find one. Being overseas is not a problem if you check they can do the meetings via Skype (or use our recommended mentors The Learning Luminarium)
I also want to use topic 8 for my research may you please advice me the companies that publishes their accounts on internet and that i am free to use please help.
@bruce2015 – I don’t like recommending particular companies as it’s best you choose ones that interest you. However you could try Google and Microsoft for example, Sony and Samsung or two international airlines. Just put the name of the company in a search engine and annual report 2014 or go to their websites and look for the Investor Relations pages to find their latest reports
Hi @Ali Farooq OBU Registered Mentor,
Thank you so much of your advice.
I have some questions about Topic 8 and selected company.
1. if the co.’s year ended day is 31 dec, for Period 32 May 2016, i would only study annual report from Year 2012 to Year 2014, right?
2. Should I also refer to company’s quarterly’s report of year 2015 and 2016?
3. I would like to choose China Eastern Airlines as my selected company and the competitor will be choosing Cathy Pacific, besides to consider their financial year end, financial reporting standards what else area should i pay attention?
Thank you for your kind advice in advance.
Best Regards,
Hellenthanks a lot sir- Mr. Hammad and Farooq
Mr. Farooq,
for my project mentor we are yet about to have our first meeting; i think at the first meeting i would open up these issues to Him for his advisei guess your advise for me to study Verizon vs at&t will be OK with me if only i can get their individual financial statements rather than consolidated financial statements.
please can you write to me their websites- Verizon and at&t
my second worry now is that i have read through the Information pack and assuming i now have my company, please what is the way forward…… because my sheets are blank as at now- i mean how do i start now that i have my company and topic?
hope to hear from you quickly.
thank youAs per my knowledge you prepared your project in 2014. Anyways please find your answer.
1. if the co.’s year ended day is 31 dec, for Period 32 May 2016, I would only study annual report from Year 2012 to Year 2014, right?
1) You should confirm publication date if reports are available till end of Jan, you must use otherwise you are advised to use from 2012 to 2014. Please read pg 42 of Bsc info pack. Addition, you must provide reasons for using annual reports from 2012 to 2014 in your part 2 of RAP.
2. Should I also refer to company’s quarterly’s report of year 2015 and 2016?
2) If you are using annual report from 2012 to 2014 then you do not require to incorporate quarterly or half yearly report of 2015. As per my experience you may use latest information in your business analysis (optional).
3. I would like to choose China Eastern Airlines as my selected company and the competitor will be choosing Cathy Pacific, besides to consider their financial year end, financial reporting standards what else area should i pay attention?
3) I advise you to select Public listed companies for your RAP because the amount of information is available online. Most of students to expect to be able to find information quickly and easily. You should do research smart and hard to obtain reliable information from different sources
Finally, you can not rely only on Annual Reports / CEO / Director Reports. You must use different sources during analysis such as Business newspapers, Press release, Chamber of Commerce, Regulator reports, State Bank Reports, Industry specific reports & any other reliable source.
Regards,
Ali FarooqHi @Emmanuel
Perfect. I recommend you to read BSC info pack and make a list of question of your research and reading for first meeting, good luck for your meeting
Thank you for appreciating my advise. as an investor in the USA i keep updated myself with their financial and business performance. you will not find year end difference If you select Verizon & AT&T.
When will you have first meeting, kindly take advise from your Mentor for research skills.
Please click below mentioned links
https://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=9186
https://www.verizon.com/about/investors/annual-reportsDear, I already solved your major problem. Now you need to select suitable company and topic and present to your Mentor in your first meeting. Complete your project as per OBU guidelines.
good day TREPHENA
i have selected two companies in telecom industry but the problem is do with the dates my main company has a financial year which ends at 31 MARCH and the one for my comparotar ends at 31 DEC three months difference please help me
This isn’t normally a major problem – please read the answers above on this. However I recognise that you may not have the 31st March financials for the comparator. Mention this in limitations and for important ratios if it were me I would use the GP ratio and net/ operating profit from the 3rd quarter from the 3rd quarter unaudited financials to compare with main company (not the raw figs because you would only have 9 months). You should be able to get the share price on the same dates from a good stock exchange website -and the trend in this is important. For current ratios etc you could use 31 March 2014 as again the trend over the years is important
dear trephena
the company i am studying with its comparator(pharmaceuticals) are all listed companies on the Ghana Stock Exhange- but their latest financial statements available on the annual reports for listed companies is 2013- no 2014 and 2015
can i therefore do the RAP with 2013, 2012, 2011secondly there is also a difference in the year end; 31 dec for the main company and 30 sep for the comparator…… i have read your responses to similar questions but i dont get it clear
can you please give me an clear elaboration on how to go about it
thank you, hope to hear from you soonYou must be certain that nothing more recent than 2013 is available as the marker is bound to question this as basing a report and submitting on such old data in 2016 has negligible worth. If they find more recent accounts were available in accordance with the rules in the Information Pack you will get an instant fail. Otherwise 3 months difference is negligible.
For calculating the ratios are we suppose to take the amounts from annual report?
Yes from financial statements including notes to accounts. Also note that amounts can also be from other authentic websites such as PE ratio from any stock exchange website.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi – OBU Registered Mentor.I encourage to students to compute ratios by them self and you may find difference between your ratio and their ratios. you should not be worried about it. Ratio differences can occur because of different assumption/judgement used by company. you should highlight this matter under the heading of limitation and inform examiner you are following your approach or the company,
If you select public listed company then you can get financial information from stock exchange and annual report. I would like to highlight one issue here. some business newspapers publish research report on companies but you may find differences in financial figures & ratios. I recommend you to focus on annual reports to extract financial figures because it is audited 🙂
Regards,
Ali Farooq OBU Registered MentorI have a question regarding the use of IT as part of preparing the RAP. I just copied the financial statements of my chosen company into excel and did some formatting etc. Do i have to show formula’s in my excel sheet or is just simply copying the data on to the sheet sufficient?
How are you calculating the ratios? Presumably too you will be producing some graphs for your RAP (report and Presentation) ? Ensure that these are all included on the worksheets in the same excel file.
I am calculating the ratios on the excel sheet. I am talking about the balance sheet and income statement items like do i have to show the formula for lets says total assets on the balance sheet ( SUM(D1:D5)) or can i just use the copied figures.
I am definitely going to show formula’s for the ratio’s.
You have to apply formula on the excel sheet while preparing financial statements and ratios , Examiner can easily review by using the “insert function” in excel
I strongly recommend to my students to compute ratios and apply formula.
You can provide Ratio formulas in the separate excel sheet i.e Gross profit margin = gross profit / revenue = ( revenue – cost of goods sold ) / revenueHope the answer of the question
Regards,
Ali Farooq
OBU Registered Mentor
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