You are required: to identify a UAE or an international Publicly listed company to analyze; to refer to the company’s annual report or any reliable source of i

Assessment Task:	Final Assessment – Project Report on Financial statement Analysis
Description:	Report
Word Length:	3000 words

OUTLINE AND REQUIREMENTS

You are required: to identify a UAE or an international Public listed company to analyze; to refer to the company’s annual report or any reliable source of information in the public domain; to apply financial and ratio analysis tools; to compare and contrast the firm’s financial position and financial performance as opposed to the given industry averages (or a selected benchmark); and to identify and assess the weak and strong (financial and non-financial) areas of the firm based on your collected information and the given financial statements.

The task will test the knowledge of the students and their ability in analyzing and appraising selected companies (main company & benchmark company) and their financial statements.

Students are expected to provide a short overall analysis for shareholders on whether they should increase or decrease their investment. In their answers, students are expected to provide an element of analysis, discussion, and strategic thinking. Students are expected to use 5 years’ financial statements of the companies to do this project.

Companies Selected:

Main Company: ITC Limited

Benchmark Company: Hindustan Unilever Limited

Financial Statements: https://we.tl/t-tKjDN2Sm7p

Sample Assignments (For reference): https://we.tl/t-HyfaFg7UZT

Deliverables:

1. 3000-word Report with references

2. Excel Sheet with all the calculations

Guidelines

1. Select 2 Public listed companies of your choice (from any sector/industry for example, Real Estate, Construction, Industrials or Services sector etc.) with financial statements data available for the years 2018 to 2022.

2. Analyse, assess and highlight the market and financial position of your company. Conduct S.W.O.T analysis for the company highlighting main financial and market strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

3. You are required to review the financial statements and collect all relevant and available data.

4. Trend analysis is an aspect of financial analysis that tries to predict the future movement based on past data. Trend analysis is based on the idea that what has happened in the past gives traders an idea of what will happen in the future. For this purpose, the following data for your selected company and its benchmark are to be enclosed and analysed as part of your ratio analysis for the years 2018-2022:

1. Total Assets	9. Earnings Per Share (EPS)
2. Total Owners’ Equity	10. Dividends Per Share (DPS)
3. Total Liabilities	11. Total Sales (or Total Revenues)
4. Return on Assets (ROA)	12. Net Operating Profits (Profit for the year)
5. Return on Equity (ROE)	13. Retained Earnings
6. Operating Cash Flows	14. Debt Ratio (Financial Leverage)
7. Investing Cash Flows	15. Net Working Capital
8. Financing Cash Flows	16. Assets Turnover

5. Your report should include the following elements:

i) Introduction and overview of the company (2-3 pages).

ii) Comparative cross-sectional and Industrial analysis, which should include:

(1) Horizontal analysis tables of the financial statements for the years 2021 & 2022 – Main Company.

(2) Trend Analysis and relevant charts for the years 2018 to 2022 – Main Company and Benchmark

(3) Vertical analysis tables of the financial statements used for the year 2021 – Main Company

(4) Financial Ratios (2021 & 2022) – Main Company & Benchmark:

(a) Liquidity analysis (Net Working Capital; Current Ratio)

(b) Activity analysis (Inventory Turnover; Receivables Turnover; Payables turnover; Assets turnover)

(c) Solvency and Debt Management (Debt Ratio; Times Interest Earned Ratio)

(d) Profitability analysis (ROA; ROE; EPS)

(e) Conclusion and suggestions.

6. Project report’s format guidelines are mentioned below:

The report should not be more than 20 pages long, be of A4 size, with the suggested following layout: (i) top margin 2.5 cm; bottom margin 2.5 cm; left margin 3.5 cm; and right margin 2.5 cm. (ii) Papers must be written for compatibility with: Word for Windows; with the suggested font and format attributes: Arial font, size 12; single line spacing paragraph; and justify alignment. The page numbers must be centred at the bottom of the page.