Butler Lumber Company
Background: Butler Lumber Company was founded in 1981, in a large city in the Pacific Northwest. Typical products of the company included plywood, moldings, and sash and door products. After a rapid growth in its business during recent years, the company in the spring of 1991 anticipated a further substantial increase in sales. Despite good profits the company experienced a shortage in cash and found it necessary to increase its bank borrowings.
Issues:
• Butler Lumber Company is a profitable company. Why do they need external financing?
• Butler Lumber Company is being offered a discount from its suppliers. Should they take the discount?
• Project their Income Statement and balance sheet for all of 1991.
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This signals that although company is profitable but the retained earnings are not enough to fuel the exponential growth of the company. Payable period increased from 35 days in 1989 to 45 days in 1990(Exhibit 2), which shows that the company is lagging behind the standard due date of 30 days. This sole dependency on accounts payable for the uses of cash will make the situation worse. Therefore for additional inventory and accounts receivable to sustain the growth company needs external financing from the bank.
Also current ratio of the company during 1988-1990 (exhibit 3) indicates that liquidity position of the company is deteriorating as ratio is falling from 1.80% in 1998, to 1.59% in 1989 and finally reaching 1.45% in 1990. Similar trends are seen in the quick ratio as it has descended from 0.88% in 1988 to 0.67% in 1990 (exhibit 3). Days sales outstanding represent the number of day’s sales remains outstanding it has shown a substantial increase for 36.78 days in 1988 to 42.95 days in 1999 (exhibit 3), giving signals that the company is fueling its growth from cash crunch.
Hence to fuel their growth of 40%, the company needs external financing.
As noted above we decided that Butler Lumber Company should go for the discount.
In case of the company not going for the discount the pro forma income statements and balance sheet of the company represent the following out come in the without discount scenario.
As we see in exhibit 1 in the income
1. Key success factors & company performance…………………………………………………..3 2. Bank perspective regarding the performance…………………………………………………..7 3. Bank financing perspective at the end of 1998……………………………………………….10 4. Management perspective regarding the bank financing………………………………….13 5. Exhibit 1 – Annual Income Statements (1994-1997)………………………………………17 6. Exhibit 2 – Annual Balance Sheets (1994-1997)……………………………………………..18 7. Exhibit 3 – Quarterly Income Statements 1997……………………………………………….19 8. Exhibit 4 – Quarterly Balance Sheets 1997………………………………………………………20 9. Exhibit 5 – Forecasting………………………………………………………………………………………21 10. Exhibit 6 – Annual Ratios………………………………………………………………………………….22 11. Exhibit 7 –
We noticed the following financial health indicators in our forecast: Clarkson Lumber's ratio of total assets to sales is moving from a position in line with high profit outlets to low profit outlets at 37.7%. This is due to accounts receivable increasing to 14% of sales which is higher than the 13.7% experienced by low profit ratios. Also, inventory as a percentage of sales has steadily increased from 11.5% in 1993 to 13.5% in 1996.
The liquidity of firm can be measured by computing certain ratio’s such as current ratio and acid ratio. For measuring Target Corporation’s 2014 liquidity; the firm’s current ratio and the acid ratio is computed. The company’s current ratio is 0.91 times which is computed by comparing current asset ($11, 573,000) with current liabilities ($12,777, 000) of the year 2014 (TGT Company Financial, n.d). The firm’s acid ratio is 0.26 times which is computed by deducting inventory ($8,278,000) from current assets. The inventory is deducted from current assets because the company has not received any money for the unfinished good or from unsold inventory worth ($8,278,000). To analyze the Target Corporation’s liquidity trend in 2014; the current ratio and acid ratio of 2014 is compared with the 2015’s ratios. In 2015, the firm’s current ratio was 1.20 times and the acid ratio was 0.45 times. These liquidity ratios reflect that the firm’s liquidity was better in 2015 than 2014. (See Table 1).
ACC/291 March 25,2012 Liquidity Ratios Current Ratio: Current Assets/Current Liabilities 2005 $14,555,092/ $6,974,752= 2.09:1 2004 $14,643,456/ $6,029,696=2.43:1 Acid Test Ratio: Cash+ Short-Term Investments + Receivables (Net)/ Current Liabilities 2005 $305,563 + $283,583 +$6,133,663/ $6,974,752= .96:1 2004 $357,216 + $133,504 + $5,775,104/ $6,029,696=1.04:1 Receivables Turnover: Net Credit Sales/ Average Net Receivables 2005 $50,823,685/ ($6,133,663 + 5,775,104/2) $50,823,685/ $5,954,384= 8.54 times 2004 $46,044,288/($5,775,104+6,569,344/2) $46,044,288/ $6,172,224=7,46 times Inventory Turnover: Cost of Goods Sold/ Average Inventory 2005 $42,037,624/ ($7,850,970+$7,854,112/2) $42,037,624/$7,852,541=5.35 times
Two-year decrease of liquidity measures including current ratio and quick ratio reveals the problems concerning company’s short-term solvency and liquidity. Butler Lumber Company’s current ratio decreased to 145.05% in 1990 from the level of 180.00% in 1988. The same decrease happened to quick ratio (decreased from 88.08% in 1988 to 66.92% in 1990). As the short-term lender, Northrop National Bank should have noticed that Butler Lumber Company’s ability to pay its bills over the short run without undue press needs to be carefully examined. The decrease of current ratio also implies the decreasing level of company’s net working capital, which is another sign of lower level of liquidity.
The lumber was ordered, purchased and received on December 31. It is being held for a future sale as of the year end date. The terms of purchase are FOB destination.
Although the company seems to be profitable, it has faced shortage of cash. It happened due to increase in Accounts Receivable as well as Inventories. On the other hand, Accounts Payable does not increase that rapidly and difficulties regarding cash collection become evident. Furthermore, the cash collection cycle becomes larger (59 days in year 2003, while more than 70 in year 2006).
Because they have faced cash shortage trouble. Their profitability has grown for 1993 ~ 1995 period, as we can see from their I/S (e.g. Sales and Net Income, etc.). However, as its business size grows, their A/R increased, which means that it is getting difficult to collect cash. On the other hand, A/P decreased for the same period, which means that the company paid cash for A/P, resulting in critical cash shortage. Furthermore, the A/P payment period is shorter than A/R collection periods, the company’s cash problem happens to be accelerated.
First of which, is the current ratio. It has been rapidly declining since 2000. To me this indicates that there is a liquidity issue. Each year their trade debt increase exceeds the increase of net income for the company. As a result, the working capital has taken a nosedive from $58,650 in 2002 to only $5,466 in 2003.
Increase in current liabilities Substantial increase in current liabilities weakened the company’s liquidity position. Its current liabilities were US$2,063.94 million at the end of FY2010, a 48.09% increase compared to the previous year. However, its current assets recorded a marginal increase of 25.07% - from US$1,770.02 million at the end of FY2009 to US$2,213.72 million at the end of FY2010. Following this, the company’s current ratio declined from 1.27 at the end of the FY2009 to 1.07 at the end of FY2010. A lower current ratio indicates that the company is in a weak financial position, and it may find it difficult to meet its day-to-day obligations.
The Lawsons’ efficiency ratios are another section the bank will find troubling. The company’s age of payables has nearly tripled over the last four years. This can be detrimental to the company’s image and reliability including their reliability toward the bank if granted the loan. Along with increasing age of payables is increasing age of receivables and age of inventory. Indicating that Mr. Mackay is taking longer to collect his receivables and that he has purchased too much inventory. Too much inventory results can result in further issues
2. Forecast the firm’s financial statements for 2002 and 2003. What will be the external financing requirements of the firm in those years? Can the firm repay its loan within a reasonable period? In order to forecast the financial statements of 2002 and 2003, the following assumptions need to be made. The growth of sales is 15%, same as 2001, which is estimated by managers. The rate of production costs and expenses per sales is constant to 50%. Administration and selling expenses is the average of last 4 years. The depreciation is $7.8 million per year, which is calculated by $54.6 million divided by 7 years. Tax rate is 24.5%, which is provided. The dividend is $2 million per year only when the company makes profits. Therefore, we assume that there will be no dividend in 2003. Gross PPE will be $27.3 million (54.6/2) per year. We also assume there is no more long term debt, because any funds need in the case are short term debt, it keeps at $18.2 million. According to the forecast, Star River needs external financing approximately $94 million and $107 million in 2002 and 2003, respectively. In order to analysis if the company can repay the debt, we need to know the interest coverage ratio, current ratio and D/E ratio. The interest coverage ratios through the forecast were 1.23 and 0.87 respectively, which is the danger signal to the managers, because in 2003, the profits even not
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