Analysis of Financial Statements of Graincorp Company

Discuss about the Accounting and Finance for Theory and Practice.

The review and analysis of the financial statements is important for organizations to disseminate the financial information to investors and creditors. The financial information obtained from the financial statements forms the basis for evaluating the performance of an organization. Business organizations publish the financial statements in the annual report for communicating the important financial information to concern outside parties.Creditors and investors rely on the financial information communicated by a company for safety and profitability of their investments. The financial statements provide detailed information about the assets investments and outstanding debts to the stakeholders. The company’s managers can also easily decide the capital structure by maintaining an adequate balance between equity and debt. The analyses of the financial statements prove as a critical tool for the company’s managers to evaluate past and present performance.  It also assesses the uncertainty of the future cash flows and therefore supports the decision-making process of the organization.  In this context, the present report aims to review and examine the financial position of Graincorp for evaluating its financial performance.

Graincorp is an Australian based company that is recognized as a leader in food ingredients and agribusiness.  The company’s activities are based on three main core grains, that is, wheat, barley and canola. The company has a comparative advantage in originations of these grains in terms of technical expertise and freight differentials.  The company operates its business functions in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, North America, and Europe besides Australia. It has four reporting segments that are, Storage & Logistics, Marketing, Malt and Oils. The company conducts its business functions through developing and maintenance of an integrated supply chain to carry out its operational activities efficiently.  The company aspired to become an international leader in food ingredients and agribusiness by creating value for all its stakeholders. The company develops a workplace culture that aims at ensuring employee’s and customer welfare through adoption of best work practices (Annual Report, 2015). The present report, in this regard, reviews the financial performance of the company for identifying the areas of improvement needed for enhancing its profitability in the future context.

Analysis of Financial Statements of Graincorp Company

Statement of financial position is another term used for balance sheet. This statement shows the value of assets, liabilities and equity of the company at the end of the financial year. All the amount that are presented in the financial statements are adjusted to the balances of items at the beginning of year and any changes made in the current itself. The structure presented in the financial statement is exactly similar to normal accounting equation. So, accounting equation used in the statement of financial position is represented as Assets = Liabilities + Stockholder’s Equity. Statement of financial position is regarded as one of the important financial statements as it helps the users to evaluate the financial performance of the company in respect to liquidity, debt-equity position, financial performance and business risk (Brigham and Ehrhardt, 2011).

Statement of Financial position

In this section, important details of financial position of Graincorp Company are evaluated in the terms of performance through comparing the current year figures with last year figures. Every item in balance sheet has its importance and provides certain information that helps the users of financial statement to compare the company’s current year performance with the last year performance. Therefore, important items in the balance sheet of Graincorp Company will be evaluated using the balances in the statement and notes to statements. Below are important figures of the balance of Graincorp Company in year 2015 and 2014 and also percent increase or decrease.

The above table represents the figures in the balance sheet of Graincorp Company for year 2015 and 2014. The increase and decrease in items of balance in respect of year 2015 has also been represented in the form of percentage. On looking at the table it can be said that in year 2015, Graincorp Company has performed well as all the items in balance have positive increase in amount in year 2015. The value of current assets was increased by 9.46% that shows that liquidity position of the company is good. Looking at the figures of non current assets it can be said that Graincorp has invested quite a good amount in fixed assets in year 2015. There was increase of 10.74% in the value of non current assets in year 2015 as compare to year 2014. In total, there was 10.22 % increase in value of assets that shows Graincorp company has made significant growth in year 2015 (Annual Report, 2015). While talking about liability section it can be seen that there was small increase in value of current liabilities whereas value of non current liabilities has increased with greater difference. The value of current liabilities was increased by 3.04 % and value of current assets increased by 9.46 % that reflects company has made significant adjustments to adjust the liquidity position (Mumba, 2013). Value of non current liabilities was increased to 31.95 %, which clearly shows that Graincorp has taken debt from the financial institutions to finance the activities. The increase in equity by 4.43% represents increase in value of equity amount, reserves and retained earnings (Annual Report, 2015).

The statement of stockholder’s equity is highly important for obtaining information regarding the changes in various equity components including retained earnings.  Shareholder’s equity depicts the net worth of a company by identifying the difference between total assets and total liabilities. 

Statement of Change in Equity

The table reflects all major values presented in the statement of changes in equity of Graincorp Company. On looking at the overall changes in the equity value of company it can be said that there was very small change in the values of the equity. Therefore, it implies that company has not issue any equity share in year 2015 to finance expansion as well as purchase of fixed assets. The value contributed equity has increased to 1346 million dollar in year from 1344.80 million in year 2014, showing an increase of 0.09 % (Annual Report, 2015). There was no change in number of equity shares issued in the open market. There was change in number of treasury shares in year 2015 because some of treasury was taken back by the company. There was major change in value of retained earnings (Houston and Brigham, 2009). Value of retained earnings was raised by 186.27 % in year 2015 as it was in year 2014. There was not much change in retained earnings when both year figure was compared (Annual Report, 2015).

The profit and loss statements of a company summarizes the revenues, costs and expenses that is incurred during a particular period of time. It proves to be useful for the investors and creditors to develop an understanding of the business processes used by an organization to generate income and manage its costs. Businesses can also easily make predictions regarding the future expenses including rent, salaries, equipment purchases and overhead costs. Profit and loss statement enables an organization to develop future strategies for improving its revenue and reducing the costs.

The above table shows major items in that are shown in the statement of profit and loss account of Graincorp Company. On looking at all the figures of the profits and loss account it can be concluded that there was decrease in operating performance of the company in year 2015 as compare to year 2014. The operating revenue of the company was reduced by 2.52% in year 2015 as compare to year 2014 (Annual Report, 2015). Due to this decrease there was decline in net income by 33.03%. In year 2014, Cost of good sold in year 2015 was also decreased by 1.62 % but this decrease is not sufficient to meet the decrease in net revenue. There was also decrease in total expenses in year 2015 by 2.04% due to change in company operating capacity. There was significant decrease in amount of income tax paid by 22.30 % in year due to 33 % decrease in net revenue. Earning per share change from 22 cents in year 2014 to 14 cents in year 2015, reflecting 36.36 percent decrease in income attributable to shareholders (Buckle, Buckle and Thompson, 2004). There was only 4.44 % decrease in finance cost despite of major downfall in net income. The overall operating position of the company was adversely impacted in year 2015 as compare to year 2014 (Annual Report, 2015).

Statement of Profit and Loss account

Cash flow statement of an organization shows its efficiency of generating cash inflows from its daily operational activities. It provides detailed information regarding the method used by an organization for generating cash. Cash flow statement generally provides information on the cash spent by a firm in operating, investing and financing activities.  It demonstrates the internal and external sources that an organization uses for generating cash and provides insights to the stakeholders about its cash position.

The table is related to major activities reflected in the cash flow statement of the Graincorp Company. The statement of cash flow has been drawn clearly and shows all the important activities. It can be said on the basis of analyses that company was able to generate sufficient cash flow from all the activities. There was increase in cash and cash equivalents by 81.38 % that reflects significant increase in balance of cash is year 2015. Such amount has been used to purchase the fixed assets in year (Annual Report, 2015). Graincorp has purchased 223.60 million dollars of fixed assets and it was 58.36 % more from the fixed assets purchase in year 2014. Net cash inflow from operating activities was 171.10 million dollars in year 2014 and was increased to 271.10 million dollars in year 2015, showing an increase of 58.45 % in year 2015. There was Cash outflow of 50.10 million dollars from financing activities in year 2014 but in year 2015, there was cash inflow of 89.40 million dollars. It shows company has borrowed major amount from the outside market to finance the purchase of fixed assets (Annual Report, 2015). The cash outflow from investing activity was 174.80 million dollars in year 2014 and was increased to 213.20 million dollars in year 2015, showing a major cash used to purchase the fixed assets in year 2015. In year 2015, Graincorp has paid as dividend of 28.60 million dollars, while in year 2014 company paid the dividend of 80.10 dollars. The overall liquidity and finance position was sound with some issues related to sources of finance. Graincorp uses debt as the major source of finance in year 2015 (Annual Report, 2015).

Conclusion

The analysis of financial statements of Graincorp shows that overall performance of the company in year 2015 was above standard as compared to year 2014. All the four major financial statements were evaluated in detailed and increase/decrease in values was noted in the table above. The statement of financial statements shows that company’s liquidity position was sound and company has enough assets to pay all the current liabilities. Debt and equity position shows a balanced position of the capital in the organization. This shows that company risk position was very good in year 2015 as compared to year 2014 (Annual Report, 2015). There was no change in equity that shows that Graincorp has used outside debt as major source of finance. The analysis of change in profit and loss account shows overall performance of the company in the particular time period. The performance of the Graincorp Company in year 2014 was far better as compare to year 2015. Therefore, company needs to focus on the operational capacity and need invest in profitable activities and make significant decisions on avoiding the losses from activities that generates negative profit.

The main aim to make the above was to know the changes in values of different items of the financial statement so that performance of the company can be measured and economic decision can be drawn. Financial statements aim to provide the data on the financial position, changes in equity, performance and cash generated by the enterprise. All these details help the investors to make the opinion on investment decision and act as proper guide to them.

On the basis of complete review and understanding of subject, following recommendations have been made for Graincorp management. All these reviews are based on the initial findings from the annual reports of year 2015 and 2014 of Graincorp Company.

Graincorp need to finance the major capital from the issue of equity shares and make less dependency on debt related source of finance.

Graincorp must focus on increase of reserves and retained earnings so that they can be used in case of adverse situation to finance all major activities (Bull, 2007).

Graincorp must make fresh issue of equity share to generate owner’s capital and invest that amount in the expansion of the company business in other part of country. Investment must be made in profitable activities so that there overall revenue can be increased.

Management of Graincorp must think about the strategies to reduce the expanses made for cost of good sold. It is advised to the management to reduce the expenses on the advertising and selling through offline retail shops. Management should promote online business in the selling and distribution section so that overall expenses can be reduced.

References

Annual Report 2015. Graincorp Company Limited. [Online]. Available at: www.graincorp.com.au/_literature_205430/2015_Annual_Report [Accessed on: 18 September, 2016].

Brigham, E. F. and Ehrhardt, M. C. 2011. Financial Management: Theory and Practice. Mason: Cengage Learning.

Buckle, M.J., Buckle, M. and Thompson, J. 2004 . The UK Financial System. 4^th ed. New York: Manchester University Press.

Bull, R. 2007. Financial Ratios: How to use financial ratios to maximise value and success for your business’. UK: Elsevier.

Houston, J.F. and Brigham, E.F. 2009. Fundamentals of Financial Management. Cengage Learning.

Mumba, C. 2013. Understanding Accounting and Finance: Theory and Practice. USA: Trafford Publishing.