Predicting a Firms Financial Distress Essay

Professor Thomas Piper prepared the original version of this note, “Assessing a Firm’s Future Financial Health,” HBS No. 201-077, which is being

This bank loan helped finance the increase in property and other related assets. The sponaneous assets that were increased as a result of an increase in sales were financed by an increase in sponaneous liabilities. Spontaneous liabilities have grown by 35%, which supports the claim that they finance the increase in accounts receivable and inventories. In the period between 1993-1995, the financial strength of Clarkson Lumber has deteriorated significantly. As seen from the financial ratios excel spreadsheet attached, the current and quick ratios have been gone down substantially. This means that the company’s ability to meet its short term obligations has deteriorated. Furthermore, the return on sales and return on assets have also gone down, which means that their increase in net income has not stayed consistent with the increase in sales and increase in assets to finance these sales. Their falling inventory turnover ratio means that even though their sales are increasing, they are not moving inventory at the same pace they had before. Their low accounts receivable turnover ratio and high dales sales outstanding indicates that there’s a large amount of money tied in this account.

3. Was the firm able to generate enough cash from operations to pay for all of its capital expenditures?

1. Their uses of cash were primarily used for paying off debt and investing it in marketable securities. Also they spent some of their cash on fixed assets. Even though their ending cash was lower than the previous year, they were using their cash effectively.

The cash flow statement shows the amount of cash within a company. Items that affect the cash balance are listed on the statement. The first section of the cash flow statement is operating activities, which shows the cash flowing in and out of the company in relation to its business operation. The operating activities section also includes net income and the change in dollars of certain accounts listed on the balance sheet. The next section, investing activities, shows cash the company received and spent on a company's capital investments. The financing activities section shows the inflows and outflows of cash related to the company’s issued financial securities, which is also listed on the balance sheet and statement of shareholders' equity.

Most corporate financing decisions in practice reduce to a choice between debt and equity. The finance manager wishing to fund a new project, but reluctant to cut dividends or to make a rights issue, which leads to the decision of borrowing options. The issue with regards to shareholder objectives being met by the management in making financing decisions has come to become a major issue of recent times. This relates to understanding the concept of the agency problem. It deals with the separation of ownership and control of an organisation within a financial context. The financial manager can raise long-term funds internally, from the company’s cash flow, or externally, via the capital market, the market for funds

The company lost money almost every year since its leveraged buyout by Coniston Partners in 1989. The income generated was not sufficient to service the interest expenses of the company which stood at $2.62B in 1996. From Exhibit 1, we can say that interest coverage ratio computed as EBIT / Interest Expense was 1.31 in 1989 and has been decreasing over years and currently stands at 0.59. This raises a question of how the company can meet its interest payments without raising cash or selling assets.

The company’s debt ratios are 54.5% in 1988, 58.69% in 1989, 62.7% in 1990, and 67.37% in 1991. What this means is that the company is increasing its financial risk by taking on more leverage. The company has been taking an extensive amount of purchasing over the past couple of years, which could be the reason as to why net income has not grown much beyond several thousands of dollars. One could argue that the company is trying to expand its inventory to help accumulate future sales. But another problem is that the company’s

The 1992 year-end cash balance does not meet the 5% optimal cash balance, thus there is no left-over cash which could be invested on marketable securities. However the projected 1993 year-end cash balance of 35,874 meets the optimal cash balance, with an excess of 25,108.75. These excess funds can be invested on marketable securities thus yielding a 7% profit (1,757.6). After paying taxes, the net profit from marketable securities is 1,054.56. Retained earnings would increase by this amount with a corresponding increase in cash and marketable securities.

The company currently faces serious financial challenges. It was struggling with declining sales and increasing costs. Since 2004, revenues had fallen by more than 40% while costs especially for employees health insurance, maintenance, and utilities climbed. Credits and loans had been borrowed to

Rapid Repair’s profitability appears good but their cash balance has shrunk. Write a report that provides a financial analysis

The company entered into dubious transactions, especially with Doug Mather. This helped contribute to the cash flow problems. The company needs to avoid these transactions in the future.

WM shows a steady increase in the amount of cash generated by operating activities in the last three years, while SRC shows a negative operating cash flow in 1997. During this last year, WM used its operating cash flow to finance both new expansion activities and financing activities (mainly a stock repurchase plan). SRC, on the other hand, had to take new

1 In Ravi Suria’s analysis, “we believe that the current cash balances will last the company through the first quarter of 2001.” According to Exhibit 12c the cash flow statement, in contrast, the cash balance could last for the first quarter of 2001, when it suffered from 407 losses in operating activities, though positive in investing and

Over the years, the process of declaring bankruptcy has become incredibly simple. Because of this change, the number of people declaring bankruptcy is at an all time high. Today, bankruptcy is a common thing among companies and individuals alike. The American bankruptcy law allows people to avoid paying their debts by offering the debtors a discharge without a harsh consequence. By not having repercussions for their actions, bankruptcy filers often plan future bankruptcies, allowing them to steal even more money from creditors with no punishment. There are 13 different chapters in the bankruptcy system with the principal chapters being 7,11, and 13. You can only file for bankruptcy under these three chapters, the others are there to