The details given below are a summary of the statements of financial position of six public companies engaged in different industries.

The activities of each company are as follows:
1. Operator of a chain of retail supermarkets.
2. Sea ferry operator.
3. Property investor and house builder. Apart from supplying managers, including site management, for the house building side of its operations this company completely subcontracts all building work.
4. A vertically integrated company in the food industry, which owns farms, flour mills, bakeries and retail outlets.
5. Commercial bank with a network of branches.
6. Contractor in the civil engineering industry.
Note: no company employs off-balance sheet finance such as leasing.
Requirement Y

(a) State which of the above activities relate to which set of statement of financial position details, giving a brief summary of your reasoning in each case. (No marks will be awarded for matching where no explanation is given.)

(b) What do you consider to be the major limitations of ratio analysis as a means of interpreting accounting information?

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A B C D E F Assets Land and other buildings 10 2 26 -24 57 5 Other non-current assets 17 1 34 - 13 73 Inventories and work in progress 44 22 55 16 1 Trade receivables 6 77 15 4 1 13 Other receivables 11 8 2 5 Cash and investments 12 20 3 9 11 3 100 100 100 100 100 100 Equity and Liabilities Capital and reserves 37 Non-current Liabilities 12 55 62 58 55 50 4 13 6 25 Current Liabilities