This document discusses financial ratio analysis and capital budgeting techniques. It provides ratios to evaluate a company's profitability, liquidity, efficiency, and capital structure. Ratios like gross profit margin, current ratio, and gearing ratio are examined. It also compares two potential projects (Project X and Y) using payback period, net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return (IRR). Project X is recommended as it has a shorter payback period of 1.85 years, higher NPV of €29.92 million, and IRR of 24.49%, compared to Project Y. Additional factors for investment decisions and difficulties in capital budgeting are also outlined.

1. FIANACIAL RATIO ANALYSIS
Hence, ratio analysis allows for intra firm evaluation. we. at the. evaluation involving
yourcompany’s effectiveness in today's year with all your company’s effectiveness with
theprevious year. It also allows for inter firm evaluation. we. at the. evaluation of one's
company’sperformance in today's year with all your competitor’s effectiveness in today's
year. Expert assessment, since this can be named, helps you benchmark your effectiveness
with all your mates. Ratios assistance in ascertaining this monetary health and fitness in the
business plus it is futureprospects. These kind of quotients can be classified below various
mind for you to indicate just what theymeasure. There may be a tendency to function quite a
few quotients. Although most of us assume that beingthorough from the working out in
addition to meaning of an number of quotients (Say 20-25) could be best, due to the fact too
much of analysis might lead to paralysis.
Computing RatiosWhen a ratio includes a P&L number both equally from the numerator in
addition to from the denominator or provides abalance page number both equally from the
numerator in addition to from the denominator it really is named a straightratio. Exactly
where it offers this P&L number from the numerator and also the harmony page number with
thedenominator or the total amount page number from the numerator and also the P&L
number with thedenominator it really is named a corner or hybrid ratio. A: Liquidity or
Temporary Solvency RatiosLiquidity identifies this velocity in addition to simplicity along
with which a tool can be converted to money. Liquidity provides a couple of size: ease of
transformation compared to decrease in importance. Don't forget anyasset can be quickly
converted to money in case you slash the retail price. A property property or home valued
atRs twenty five lakhs can be converted to money in 1 day in case you slash the retail price
for you to Rs 5 lakhs! So a water tool is basically a single that is converted to money with no

2. major decrease in importance. An illiquid tool is actually one that is not en-cashed with no
major slash with value. Present belongings are usually most water. Fixed belongings are
usually minimum water. Real preset belongings likeland in addition to creating in addition to
gear aren’t commonly converted to money in any respect with normalbusiness task. There're
utilised available to create money. Intangibles such astrademark have zero actual lifestyle in
addition to aren’t generally converted to money. Liquidity is actually invaluable. The harder
water a small business is actually, this a smaller amount would be the chance of itfacing
monetary problems. Although too much of liquidity far too is just not good. That’s since
liquidity includes a sale price. Liquid belongings are usually a smaller amount worthwhile to
keep. For that reason there's a trade off concerning theadvantages involving liquidity in
addition to foregone prospective earnings. Liquidity or Temporary solvency quotients supply
information regarding a firm’s liquidity. Theprimary concern would be the firm’s power to
shell out it is expenses in the brief run with no unduestress. Consequently these quotients
target recent belongings in addition to recent liabilities.
“Task A”
Financial performance of Monitor PLC for the last four years can’t be considered up to the
mark by the analysis the ratios of the firm. There are certain areas which are better but on the
cost of others. For the purpose of the analysis of the Monitor PLC, following assumptions are
made;
 Product mix of the company remain unchanged
 Company does not acquire or merged with any other company
 Stock market conditions remain stable in the period of analysis
 No significant change occur in the industry structure
Profitability:

3. Gross profit margin of the company is on declining side while net profit margin is
relatively at stable position with slight increase. By comparing these two ratios, it can be said
that company cost of sales is on higher side and on the other side company slightly reduce its
operating cost. The reason behind the increase in cost of sales can be traced from the analysis
of material, labor, and overhead cost. From the analysis of these, it reveals that there is
significant increase in the materials and labor cost which cause the gross profit margin to
decline from 30% to 24% in the previous four years. Material cost increase from 40% of cost
of sale in 2010 to 48% in 2013. Even in 2013, while comparing these ratios with those of the
competitor and business sector norms, company’s performance is lagging behind. Its gross
profit margin is 24% as compare to 29% and 34% and net profit margin is 3.4% as compare
to 7% and 9% of competitor and sector norm respectively.
On the other side while analyzing the trend of return on employed capital and return
on equity, the opposite direction movement has been observed. Return on employed
capital is on declining side as compare with increasing trend of return on equity. The
reason that can be attributed to such trend is the leverage effect that can be seen in the
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
2010 2011 2012 2013
Gross profit
Net Profit

4. gearing ratio which is 35% in 2010 and jumped to 76% in 2013. As compare to
competitor and sector norm, company clearly has shown less performance in 2013 in
the both ratios.
Liquidity:
Liquidity of the firm showed the increasing trend by viewing the current ratio and
quick ratio showing the contradictory behavior. Current ratio increase from 3.4 in 2010 to 3.7
in 2013 and quick ratio decline from 2.30 in 2010 to 1.40 in 2013. This contradictory
behavior indicates that firm invest significant amount in stock which is increasing with the
passage of time. Creation of such bulk of inventory also affect the efficiency of the firm as its
stock turnover in days jumped up to 89 days in 2013from 65 days in 2010.
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
2010 2011 2012 2013
Return on Capital
Employed
Return on Equity

5. Efficiency:
For the efficient management of working capital, firm should try to;
 Minimize the stock turnover in days by avoiding the costly stock outs
 Minimize the debtors collection period without exerting extra pressure which results
into sales loss
 Maximize the creditors payment period without hurting the credit worth
As with the case of Monitor PLC, all of above mentioned three ratios has shown the opposite
trend. Result of which is high and increasing cash operating cycle (95 days in 2010 and 150
days in 2013) that may be the cause of low profitability of the firm. Firm has stuck up huge
amount in the working capital/ cash operating cycle which result into not only the high
opportunity cost but also high inventory handling cost and bad debts. Its cash operating cycle
in 2013 is 150 days as compare to competitor’s 55 days which is about 3 times greater.
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
2010 2011 2012 2013
Current Ratio
Quick Ratio

6. There is a decline in firm’s working capital turnover and fixed asset productivity. Its working
capital turnover decrease from 2.80 in 2010 to 2.30 in 2013 which is also less than its
competitor and business sector norm those are 3.5 and 4.0 respectively. Fixed asset also
decline from 1.95 to 1.39 in the same period and in 2013 the same ratio of the competitor and
sector norm are 2.0 and 2.50 respectively. All of these facts indicate the inefficiency of the
firm not only in the form of poor working capital management but also not utilizing the fixed
assets properly to generate the sales of the firm.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
2010 2011 2012 2013
Stock turnover in days
Debtors collection
period
Creditors payment
period
Cash operating cycle
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
2010 2011 2012 2013
Working capital
turnover
Fixed asset
productivity

7. Investment:
Monitor PLC’s dividend yield ratio is declining and comes to 2% in 2013 as compare
5.3% in 2009. It is also less than that of the competitor’s 3.15% but higher than sector norm
of 1.60%. Dividend yield ratio is just an indication of the return in the form of dividend not
the representative of the total return of the stock. Even many investors prefer the stock paying
low dividends and offer return in the form of stock appreciation which is a positive aspect of
the analysis of Monitor PLC. The price of its stock increases to €16.20 in 2013 from €11.70
in 2010.
Higher and increasing P/E ratio usually indicates the growth potential of a firm. Apparently
Monitor PLC’s stock seems to be more a growth stock then a value stock while comparing
with its competitor in 2013 as its P/E is 18 as compare to 11 of its competitor. But by keeping
in view the overall analysis of the company and previous years P/E ratios which are around
14, Monitor PLC seems to be overvalued in 2013.
Gearing:
Gearing ratio of the firm increases drastically, from 35% in 2010 to 76% in 2013 that
indicates the strong leverage creation. This heavy increase in long term debt is employed at
fixed assets and working capital investment. Fixed assets investment is justifiable in the
context of growth prospect but employing amount from long term debt to working capital
finance only increases the cost for the business.
Overall financial position of Monitor PLC is neither very good nor very bad. Its return to
shareholders is increasing and also showed satisfactory performance in the market. Liquidity
position of the company is also good as compare to the competitor and business sector norm.
But on the other side, poor working capital management, low profitability, and increasing

8. cost of sale are major concerns for the firm’s management. There are certain areas like
operating cost structure, cash flows, and assets composition which need to be explored
further in order to get more insight to the company position.
Suggestions/Recommendations:
On the basis of the available information for the Monitor PLC, following are the some
suggestions or recommendations;
 Firm should create the close liaison with its suppliers to control the material cost and
negotiate on the payment terms.
 Firm should create a better credit policy for the customers and make the collection
system efficient in order to reduce the debtors collection period.
 Reconsider the inventory management system and evaluate the feasibility of the JIT
inventory system with the help of long term relationship building with the suppliers.
 Firm should maintain the optimal capital structure by also issuing some new stock or
generating more finances internally, as its gearing ratio is increasing which may lead
to the insolvency in the future.
 Analyze the composition of fix assets so it can be used optimally in order to generate
the revenue as fix asset productivity declining with the passage of time.

9. “Task B”
1)
Project X Project Y
Payback Period 1.85 years 2.70 years
NPV €29.92 €21.08
IRR 24.49% 18.78%
2)
On the basis of above three capital project appraisal techniques project X is
recommended for Monitor PLC.
 Payback period of Project X is 1.85 years which is less than that of the project
Y’s 2.70 years that’s why project X is acceptable. Because if payback period
is less then firm will be able to cover is initial expenditure in the shorter time
span and cash flows received after payback period will be added to the wealth
of shareholders.
 NPV of Project X is €29.92 which is higher than €21.08 of project Y so on the
basis of NPV again project X is more suitable. NPV is net amount that is
added to the shareholders wealth after adjusting the cost of capital. Wealth
maximization is the ultimate objective of the financial management. So in case
of accepting project X wealth of shareholders increases more as compare to
the project Y.
 Similarly high IRR of 24.49% for the Project X as compare to 18.78% of
project Y also leads towards the same decision of accepting the Project X.
Every business wants to invest its fund in the opportunity which provides it

10. the higher returns. From the two alternatives project X provides the higher
return that is the main cause of its acceptance.
3)
Followings are some of the other factors that should be considered before an
investment decision is made;
 Risks associated with the realization of projected cash flows associated with
the projects under consideration. For this purpose sensitivity analysis can be
performed.
 Rate at which the technological changes took place which obsolete the
existing technology. It is critical for the company like Monitor PLC because
rate of technology change is fast in this industry. This factor becomes more
crucial for software/ IT industry and in this case payback period become the
key capital project appraisal technique.
 Consider some of the important macro-economic variables those may impact
on the performance of the projects under consideration.
 Competitors’ action or reaction on the important projects implementation and
its impact on the performance of the project.
4)
Optimal investment policy is to undertake the 1.36 projects X. 1.36 is find by;
Number of projects = Available funds/cost of one project
Number of projects = 150,000,000/110,000,000
Number of projects =1.36
The resulting total NPV from this policy will be;
Total NPV = NPV of single project * Number of projects

11. Total NPV = 29.92 * 1.36
Total NPV = €40.69 millions
5)
If projects are indivisible then company can undertake only one project which is
Project X and search for another suitable capital expenditure project for the remaining
funds or devise some other policy to optimally utilize the surplus fund.
6)
Followings are some of the difficulties and ways to overcome such difficulties
relating to appraising capital investment projects;
 One of the theoretical difficulties comes when there is conflict ranking among
different capital project appraising techniques. Such difficulty can be
overcome by analyzing the nature of the project. For example if project is
relating to dynamic industry like software then payback period is preferred
otherwise some other technique can be followed.
 Another difficulty is estimation of the life of the project which can be tackled
by careful analysis using the skills of the experienced, qualified, and project
related personnel.
 Estimation of the projected cash flows is a very critical difficulty that can be
faced by the appraisers. Because sometimes capital assets are used in such a
mixed way that it is very difficult to find the particular cash flows associated
with that project.

12. Payback Period:
Project X (€, millions) Project Y (€, millions)
Initial Expenditure 110 100
Cash Flows Cumulative CF Cash Flows Cumulative CF
Year 1 55 55 30 30
Year 2 65 120 35 65
Year 3 30 150 50 115
Year 4 10 160 30 145
Resale value Year 4 10 170 10 155
Payback (X) = 1 + 55/65 Payback (X) = 2 + 35/50
Payback (X) = 1 + 0.85 Payback (X) = 2 + 0.70
Payback (X) = 1.85 years Payback (X) = 2.70 years
NPV (Net Present Value):
Project X (€, millions) Project Y (€, millions)
Initial Expenditure 110 100
Cash Flows Present Value Cash Flows Present Value
Year 1 55 50 30 27.27
Year 2 65 53.72 35 28.93
Year 3 30 22.54 50 37.56
Year 4 10 6.83 30 20.49
Resale value Year 4 10 6.83 10 6.83
Sum of present value 139.92 121.08
Net Present Value 139.92 – 110 = 29.92 121.08 – 100 = 21.08
Present value is calculated by using formula;
Present value = future value / (1+r)n
IRR (Internal Rate of Return):
IRR is calculated by using the spreadsheet and financial function “=IRR(Range of
Cash flows)”

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