1. Your question is in 3 parts, as follows: 1. You work as a financial analyst for the CFO of Carrefour SA, a French multinational retailing group, which is one of the largest retailers in the world. Carrefour are considering the possible acquisition of a large UK or European-based wholesale "cash and carry"/retailing group. The initial research has identified two potential acquisition targets. One is Metro AG a very large wholesale/retail group based in Düsseldorf, Germany which is listed on the Xetra stock exchange in Frankfurt. The other is Booker Group PLC, the UK's largest food wholesaler and which is listed on the London stock exchange. The CFO has asked you to write a brief internal management memo that summarises the current businesses of each of these two companies, together with a short assessment of the impact of recent economic conditions on them. 2. Undertake the necessary research and write a report to your CFO which critically evaluates and compares the financial performance and risk exposures of these two companies, together with a reasoned argument as to your advice as to which company – if either - might be the preferred acquisition target. NOTE: Your analysis should be based on the 2013/14 financial statements of Metro and 2014 financial statements of Booker. 3. Your CFO has got an additional concern. She has been asked to give a presentation to the European Food Distributors Association conference on the topic of: "Capital Investment Decision Making". Write a short report for your CFO, which outlines the main investment appraisal techniques and critically evaluates their individual strengths and weaknesses. Included a reasoned recommendation as which approach might be best for a company such as Carrefour to use to evaluate investments in new distribution warehouses and "cash and carry" stores. 2. Presentation Reports not essay • A management report should be clearly and logically structured in whatever format appears to be most suitable for supporting the analysis, arguments, conclusions and recommendations. Place ratio calculations in an appendix and only present the actual ratios (and not the ratio calculations) in the body of the report. • Introduction of the two company's • Finical Analysis • Which is best investment • An internal management memo may be written in a "bullet point" format, if required. • Tables, graphs and charts are a convenient way of organising your findings and helping you to analyse data and to explain concepts and ideas. 3. Assessment Requirements: • The submission of your work assessment should be organised and clearly structured. • Maximum word length allowed for the whole assignment is 4000 words, excluding words in Charts & Tables and the ratio calculations in the Appendix section of your report. This word count should be split approximately, as follows: Question 1 - 1000 words, Question 2 - 2000 words and Question 3 - 1000 words. (Further guidance is given in the marking scheme, below.) • Student is required to submit a type-written document in Microsoft Word format with Times New Roman font type, size 12 and line spacing 1.5. • This assignment is worth 100% of the final assessment of the module. • Indicate any sources of information and literature review by including all the necessary citations and references adopting the Harvard Referencing • Students who have been found to have committed acts of Plagiarism are automatically considered to have failed the entire module. If found to have breached the regulation for the second time, you will be asked to leave the course. • Plagiarism involves taking someone else's words and using them as your own. This entire assignment must be written in your own words. Short quotations – up to twenty words long – are allowed as long as they are properly acknowledged and referenced. 4. Marking Scheme: Word Limit Marks (%) Brief summary of the two companies' current businesses. 500 10 A brief report on the impact of recent economic conditions on the two companies. 500 10 The comparative evaluation of the financial performance of the two companies, together with advice – with reasons - to the CFO, as to which might make the most suitable acquisition. Rato Analysis, ROCE, Current Assets, Current Liabilities, Capital investment, stoke, PBT,PAT, 2000 60 An analysis and critical evaluation of the main investment appraisal techniques. 1000 20