Financial Analysis

1. Dewhurst Plc founded in 1919 is an independent supplier of components to the lift, keypad and rail industries. The company employs over 300 people in locations around the world. 

Dewhurst is known for its range of high quality pushbutton products (often sold under the Dupar brand). The company’s pushbutton innovation in 1971 was the launch of the unique US81 Original Pushbutton. Following on from the success of the US81 the company has since focused heavily on pushbuttons and fixture products and now has a wide range of Braille and EN81-70 buttons. As well as having a significant presence in the lift industry, Dewhurst is also a major player in the keypad industry and supplies a wide range of keypad products for the ATM industry.

The company’s modern manufacturing plant is located in London, where the research and development facilities are also located with the latest Computer Aided Design equipment as well as test equipment such as shadowgraphs, endurance test equipment, environmental and dust chambers. The company has become a specialist in pushbutton design and production with extensive knowledge of hertzian stress design, QTC switch technology, pushgate switch technology and membrane enhancements.

2. BCU is a new private hospital in Birmingham that offers a range of cosmetic surgery. Figures for the hospital for 2015 are provided below and taking on some outsourcing from the state provider the NHS (National Health Service) is being considered.

During 2015 the hospital charged patients £400 per patient per day for nursing care and a £5m turnover was reported. During 2015 40 beds were available for the 365 days of the year. The number of beds is regarded as bed capacity and this is agreed at the commencement of each year by the hospital’s board of directors.

The costs of running the hospital consist of allocated variable costs, fixed costs and direct staffing costs. The charges for variable costs such as catering and laundry are based on the number of patient days in hospital. Charges for fixed costs such as security, administration and rent are based on bed capacity (i.e. for 2015, 40 beds). Direct staffing costs are established from the personnel requirements applicable to particular levels of patient days.

The tables presented below shown the break-down of the variable, fixed and staffing costs applicable to the hospital unit for 2015.

Required

Prepare marginal cost comprehensive statement of income to report the contribution per patient day cost unit, the overall contribution and the overall profit or loss.

Horizontal Analysis of Income Statement

The break-even number of patient days, the Margin of safety as a percentage, the breakeven point in revenues for the hospital and comment on the financial return performance.

The Birmingham NHS (National Health Service) is currently offering BCU a contract for 2,000 patient days at £300 per patient day. Evaluate and advise if this should be accepted in 2016 justifying with reasons your decision assuming the 2015 cost structures remain constant.

3. “Human and intellectual capital form a significant part of the competitive advantage of twenty-first-century organisations, and yet remain unmeasured and non-disclosed in the annual report. Given the nature of these type of intangible assets involved, it is difficult for businesses and their stakeholders to properly assess an organisation’s effectiveness in terms of creating, transferring and deploying knowledge. This lack of visibility, coupled with an unstable and uncertain financial environment, can make it nearly impossible for organisations to articulate their true potential for creating long-term value. Human capital management remains inadequate”.

Critically discuss this statement within a cited academic essay.

1. In this given assignment, analysis of various financial data obtained from the profit and loss account and balance sheet given will be done. 5 years data is available based on which vertical and horizontal analysis of the financial statement is made. Based on these financial data various ratio are computed which shows the profitability, efficiency and liquidity aspects of the company.

Horizontal analysis of Income Statement

Here revenue means the amount received by the company from sale of its product. Cost of Sales (COS) is the purchase price of the goods sold by the company. Gross profit is derived by subtracting COS from sales (Nobles, Mattison and Matsumura 2013). Operating cost is the expenses incurred in running the business. Operating profit is the profit of the company from its operation. Finance cost is the cost of interest payment made by company. Profit before tax is derived by deducting finance cost and other expenditure from operating profit and by adding finance income with the operating profit. Profit after tax is derived by deducting tax expenses from profit before tax.

Cost of sales is 47% of total revenue during the year then it increased during the year 2012 to 50% of revenue and then it has again decreased during the year 2013 and  2014 to 46%  of revenue. Therefore, it can be said that in the year 2013 has increased a lot which may be due to the economic inflation.  Operating cost was 39% of revenue in the year 2010 then it increased to 41 % in the year 2011 then it again fall to 39% in the year 2012 which again increased to 44% in the year 2013 and again falls in the year 2014 to 42% . Therefore, it can be said that operating cost has been very fluctuating during this 5-year span. . Gross profit has increased from 52.74% in the year 2010 to 52.94% in the year 2011 by only 0.20%. Again, it has fallen during the year 2012 to 49.65% and again increased to 53.59%.  In the year 2013 and again decreased during the year 53.52% by only 0.07%, which will not affect the company as it, is tolerable.

Horizontal Analysis of Balance Sheet

Operating profit 13% of revenue in the year 2010, which has fallen to 11% in the year 2011, stayed at that rate in 2012, and again decreased during the year 2013 to 6%, which again increased during the year 11%, which is a good sign for the company. Finance cost 0% during the year 2010 and 2011, which has increased to 1% in the year 2012 and stayed at that level in 2013 and 2014. Profit before tax was 13% during the year 2010, which decreased to 10% during the year 2011 and again increased to 11% in the year 2012, and then it suddenly falls to 5% in the year 2013 and finally it doubled in the year 2014 to 10%. Therefore, it can be said that profit before tax has fluctuated a lot during the 5 years time span. Profit after tax has followed the same trend as profit before tax, which is expected. It was 9% in the year 2010, and then it decreased to 7% in the year 2011 and stayed at that level in the year 2012, then it has decreased during the year 2013 to 2% which is due to the economic downturn bu the company revived itself in the next year and its PAT increased to 8%.

Horizontal Analysis of Balance Sheet

Non-current asset is the fixed and intangible asset of the company. Current asset are those asset, which can be easily converted into cash. Total asset is derived by summing up Current asset and non-current asset. Equity is the summation of shareholders fund and reserve and surplus. Long-term liability is the debentures and pension funds payable by the company (Hoskin, Fizzell and Cherry 2014). Current liability are those liability which is payable by the company within 12 months. Total liability is the summation of short-term and long-term liability. Shareholders fund, long-term liability and short-term liability taken together is known Total liability and equity.

Vertical Analysis of Income Statement

In this section, the difficulties in the various items of income statement are to be discussed. Revenue has increased up to the year 2012 and then it has again decreased during the year 2013 and again increased in 2014. The trend of cost of goods and operating cost sold is the same as Revenue. Operating profit has decreased in the year 2011, then it has increased in the year 2012 due to gain on disposal of £3994, and again it has decreased in the year 2013, which again increased in 2015. Profit before tax has followed the same trend as operating profit. Income tax has increased up to the year 2012 and then decreased during the year 2013 and 2014 due to lower profit before tax.

Vertical Analysis of Income Statement

Vertical Analysis of Balance Sheet

Total noncurrent asset has increased in 2011, and then it has again decreased during the year 2012 to 2014. Total current asset has fluctuated during the year 2010 to 2014 i.e. every alternative year it has either increased or decreased. Total asset has increased up to the year 2012 and then it has decreased during the year 2013 and again increased during the year 2014. Noncurrent liability has have only pension which have increased up to the year 11856 and then it has decreased during the year 2013 and again increased in the year 2014. Total current liabilities have also followed the same trend as of Noncurrent liability. Equity shareholders fund has increased in the year 2011, and then it has decreased during the year 2012 and again increased during the year 2013 and 2014.

Financial Ratios

Analysis of various ratios for 5 years is given below:

Table 1

From the above Table-1, it can be seen that Gross profit ratio has remained within the range of 49% – 53% during the 5 years period. It has not changed much so it can be said that the revenue of the company has not grown too much during the past 5 years.

Interest coverage is very much high for the company as the standard ratio is 2.5. It means the company has a good capability to pay its interest (Vogel 2014). This company used to have a 32.47 interest coverage ratio in 2010, which is reduced to 11.65 in 2014 still tough it is very high.

Operating Profit ratio for the company has decreased 24.98% in 2010 to 11.08% in 2013 and again it has increased to 20.76% in 2014, which shows that operating expenses of the company has increased during this 5 years period.

PBT and PAT of the company has decreased during the year 2010 – 2013 and then it has again increased during 2014 which is a good sign for the company as it can be seen from the trend of ratios that 2013 was a down turn for the company (Whitecotton, Libby and Phillips 2013).

ROCE and ROA has fluctuated during past 5 years which means that the management of the company has not been efficient in generating earning on its capital employed and Asset. This must be taken into account immediately by the company to increase its efficiency.

Current ratio and Acid test ratio of the company is well above 2 which is a standard ratio for a company. it is danger sign for the company if it falls below 1. Therefore, it can be said that the liquidity position of the company is very excellent and it has the ability to pay of its debts easily (Saaty and Peniwati, 2013).

BCU Hospital

Asset turnover of the company has remained within the range of 1.10 – 1.14 within the 5 years period, which means the company, is not efficiently using its asset to generate revenue. The higher the ratio the better is for the company and asset turnover of 1.14 is considered as significantly low for a company.

The company collects its receivable from debtors almost 10 times in a year and it pays to its creditors almost 4 times in a year, which is a good sign for a company.

Cash Cycle means the number of days required in the process of purchasing the raw material converting into salable condition and collection after sale. This is currently 155 days for this company this average as per industry (Healy and Palepu 2012). The company keep 1/10^th of its salable units as its stock in hand for its safety which is a good practice from the view point of the company.

2. In this section Marginal costing which includes BEP, MOS and new proposal acceptance will be discussed.

In this given assignment, marginal costing concept will be discussed in depth and its impact on the operation and profitability off the hospital (BCU) is discussed below.

                                                                    Table-2

From the above statement in Table-2, it can be seen that the hospital is currently running at a total profit of € 1415000 and a per unit profit of € 113.2 which is a very good sign for the trustee and management of the hospital.

Analysis of Profit Volume ratio (PV), Breakeven point (BEP), Margin of safety (MOS) will give a clear picture of the standing and financial position of the hospital, which is given below:

PV ratio is derived using this given formula: Contribution/Sales*100, where contribution means Sales minus variable cost (Kaplan and Atkinson 2015). It shows that variable cost is only 25.2% of sales. Higher the PV ratio the better is for the hospital.

BEP is derived using this given formula:

Units: Fixed Cost/Contribution per unit

Value: Fixed Cost/PV Ratio or BEP(units)*Revenue per unit.

In case of this hospital, BEP (units) is 7771 whereas its actual occupancy is 12500 (85.6%). Therefore, it can be said that BCU has outperformed in this year.

MOS is derived using this given formula: (Sales – BEP Sales)/Sales*100

In case of BCU, Its MOS is 37.83%, which is very high as compared to hospital industry. Therefore, it can be said that there is no chance of shut down in recent years.

Analysis of the new proposal from NHS is discussed below:

Intangible Assets

If there is ideal capacity and new proposal is to be accepted then only relevant cost is to be taken into account (DRURY 2013). Relevant cost comprises of variable cost, opportunity cost and Discretionary fixed cost. In case of BCU, there is no opportunity cost so variable cost of 2000 patient days and discretionary fix cost due to salary paid to extra 3 nurses and 4 assistants since number of patient has increased above 13000 is to be taken into account.

Since the company has a net gain of 270400 from the new proposal, it should be accepted.

3. Human and intellectual capital means the value of intangibles in the company, their relationship of which intellectual property is a component. It is used in evaluating the intellectual and human wealth of the company, which cannot be determined properly, and due to this reason their impact on the company remains un justified (Scafarto, Ricci and Scafarto 2016).

These are not directly visible tangible assets. Intellectual property comprises of Structural, Strategic alliance, Human and Relational capital. Human capital gives values to the employees of the organization whereas Relationship capital takes into account the customer relationship (Machlup 2014). Structural capital focuses on the infrastructure of the company whereas Human and Relational capital deals with the external relationship.

Human capital is inherent capability of an individual and organization has no control over it. It can only be improved by the organization with proper training. Therefore, it can be said that if an efficient employee leaves an organization then human capital also leaves the organization. It also shows that how an organization effectively manages its human capital for achieving its goals and objectives. Structural capital focuses on trademarks and patents together with organizational image, information system and software’s. Because of its diversified field, it is further categorized into process, innovation capital and organization. Process capital is the techniques and procedure to improve the delivery system of services and goods.

Relationship capital is separated from human and structural capital since it the central importance area of an organization. Often relationship with customer is referred as goodwill of the company but will not properly accounted properly for in the books of accounts of the organization. For an organization to survive and thrive in the competitive market they need to capitalize their intellectual and human capital. Organization tends to transfer their intellectual capital to their subsidiaries to avoid corporate tax. Audit of intellectual capital is required to explore the opportunities available within and outside the organization

References

DRURY, C.M., 2013. Management and cost accounting. Springer.

Healy, P. and Palepu, K., 2012. Business Analysis Valuation: Using Financial Statements. Cengage Learning.

Hoskin, R.E., Fizzell, M.R. and Cherry, D.C., 2014. Financial accounting: a user perspective. Wiley Global Education.

Kaplan, R.S. and Atkinson, A.A., 2015. Advanced management accounting. PHI Learning.

Machlup, F., 2014. Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution and Economic Significance, Volume III: The Economics of Information and Human Capital(Vol. 3). Princeton university press.

Nobles, T.L., Mattison, B.L. and Matsumura, E.M., 2013. Horngren’s Financial & Managerial Accounting: Pearson New International Edition. Pearson Higher Ed.

Saaty, T.L. and Peniwati, K., 2013. Group decision making: drawing out and reconciling differences. RWS publications.

Scafarto, V., Ricci, F. and Scafarto, F., 2016. Intellectual capital and firm performance in the global agribusiness industry: the moderating role of human capital. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 17(3).

Vogel, H.L., 2014. Entertainment industry economics: A guide for financial analysis. Cambridge University Press.

Whitecotton, S., Libby, R. and Phillips, F., 2013. Managerial accounting. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.