9.24 Shirley has been thinking for a while about investing some surplus cash in an unlisted company which organizes lettings of holiday properties in France. The company is run by an old friend of hers who is looking for additional investors in order to fund a planned expansion of the business.

Shirley has received financial statements for the business for 20X3 (showing comparative figures for 20X2). The statements of profit or loss and extracts from the statements of financial position are as follows:
20X3 20X2 £000 £000 Revenue 976.9 899.6 Gross profit 377.6 360.9 Various expenses (102.5) (98.6)
Operating profit 275.1 262.3 Finance costs (18.7) (16.5)
Profit before tax 256.4 245.8 Tax (77.0) (74.0)
Profit after tax 179.4 171.8 Share capital 80.0 80.0 Retained earnings 1,465.0 1,285.6 Long-term borrowings 319.0 276.0 Calculate the following financial ratios for Shirley:
i) gross profit margin ii) operating profit margin iii) return on shareholders’ equity iv) return on total capital employed.
Work to one decimal place.
Comment briefly on any apparent changes in business performance between 20X2 and 20X3.