Guna Fibres Case Analysis Essay example

Financial analysis: Haefren Baum is funding itself from bank loans, mortgages, and their supplier’s flexible credit. The major change in consumer demand, from the economic bust, in 1993, lead to lower sales and extended account payable days. The cash flow statements are unhealthy as they negative operating cash flows generated from a negative net income and high account payables. The company is far from liquid with 1.26 quick ratio in 1995 and high account payable days. The company has profitability issues, which is seen in their decrease in operating profit and negative return on equity. As stated earlier this is due to their decline in sales, tough economic conditions, and increased competition. They are highly leveraged company, which is risky. Their debt to equity ratio jumped from 5.84 in 1993 to 8.22 in 1995, which means it is hard for them to sustain that debt with their low equity. For

Creditors normally focus on the liquidity or solvency of the borrower in terms of current ratio and quick ratio, which indicate whether the company has enough working capital to cover the short-term debts. Myer will enter into a syndicated facility agreement to refinance the existing borrowings of the Myer Group. Besides, creditors are interested in the business risks the company might undertake, which indicate the possibility that the company might be unable to pay back the long-term liability in the future. From this point, the expectation on high return on investment and high profitability in the long run make the creditor’s interest aligned with shareholders’ value.

This course applies corporate finance concepts to make management decisions. Students learn methods to evaluate financial alternatives and create financial plans. Other topics include cash flows, business valuation, working capital, capital budgets, and long-term financing.

As shown in the ratios chart, working capital has increased by $13M. Maturities of short-term investments and cash flow from operations are projected to be sufficient to sustain the company’s overall financing needs, including capital expenditures. The following corporate strategic plan identifies a project that needs financial backing.

Lawsons’ liquidity ratios may be alarming to the bank. The company’s ability to repay short-term debt has significantly deteriorated over their four year span to the point where the company is almost unable to operate. This is defiantly a fragment of the company that the bank will have to take a deeper analysis on.

After carefully reviewing the income statement, balances sheet and cash flow it seems that the company has a negative cash flow for 1998, so even before thinking about obtaining internal and external resources for long term investment, the company must assure resources for their own working capital.

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

Financing requirements of the company can be determined by calculating the cash requirements of the company by adding the working capital needs and capital expenditure needs of the company. Working capital needs can be calculated by subtracting current liabilities from current assets of the company. Current assets of the company will remain significantly lower than current liabilities for next three years. Working capital needs of the company come out to be $17.523 million, $21,028 million and $21,028 million for years 2010, 2011 and 2012. Capital expenditures of the company will remain at $0.9 million for all three years. Adding the values of working capital needs and capital expenditure needs for all years and by subtracting these values from net income, we can calculate the external financing required by the company to meet the cash needs for next three years. As shown in calculations in excel sheet, external financing requirements for the company come out to be $15.231 million for 2010 and $18.091 million for 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Du Pont's financial policy had always been based on maximization of financial flexibility. Taking to consideration the riskiness of Du Pont's businesses, its competitive position and profitability had declined in the last 20 years. Moreover, the firm is still forced to seek external financing each year for the next five years (1983-1987) due to the continued high level of capital expenditures which are considered non-deferrable to redress the causes of poor performance. In view of the importance and magnitude of the projected financing needs, the firm is concerned about how the cost and availability of debt

Even though the company has been turning in profits, the ineffective collection practice, not availing trade discounts on time and ineffective inventory management has led the company in need of larger financing needs.

Cartwright is a retail distributor of lumber products. It built its competitive edge based on pricing and having a careful control over its operations. The company reported an operating income of $86,000 and $111,000 in 2003 and 2004, respectively. This is a 29% increase in operating income in one year, which shows the firm’s strong ability to generate cash. The firm’s account receivables and inventory are increasing from year to year which is a good sign of a growing business. Cartwright is not an asset intensive company. It does not have to have huge fixed assets; most of its assets are cash, accounts receivable and inventory which all depend on future sales. Sourcing of materials is managed very well, purchased at discounts most of the time and contribute to having lower prices.

James Gitanga was not sure about the unusual capital structure of the Company, avoiding the long-term debt. We believe that the long-term capital structure across the industry was pre-determined by the high capital expenditures and steady cash inflows. Thus, issuing long-term debt was more preferable. Besides, by issuing debt they would enjoy the tax shield since interest on long-term debt is tax-deductible.

The most important thing is that, according to our estimation, the next five-year we will get additional funds needed increasingly with no surplus funds; which means, our assets increase faster than our liabilities. Therefore, our company goes well in the short term future based on this model. In conclusion,

One of the assumptions of the management is that they assume no acquisitions will be made in 2007. If the management decides to acquire other companies in 2007 and if they decided not to repurchase stocks, they will be able to use the 230M cash or borrow debt to finance the acquisition. And this would have little impact on financial stability. If they decided to repurchase stocks, they won’t be able to finance the acquisition with cash account, and the only way left is by borrowing more debt. And this probably have minor to major impact on financial stability depending how much the company decide to borrow.

Health care organisations do business on cash basis. They provide proper medical services to different people and they receive cash when operation ends and they don’t use any debt to finance their operating activities. The capital structure of this firm shows a zero inventory turnover and a huge amount of cash from the customers from which partially is used to pay current liabilities and the remaining is in the form of retain earning.