1. Assignment task You are required to make a report analysing the trends in financial performance of the Broome Port Authority over the five years. T task, you must conduct ratio analysis of the financial data provided the organisation's annual reports for 2010 to 2014. You are required to use the tools within EXCEL to calculations, charts and/or tables. You will then report in which you will comment on the results of your ratio calculations with consideration of the internal and external influences on the operations of the organisation. The annual reports for the Broome Port Authority are available on Moodle and the organisation's website see http://www.broomeport.wa.gov.au/. Calculating your ratios To analyse the financial statements, you should use the following ratios only: 1. Return on shareholders' equity 2. Return on total assets 3. Profit margin 4. Current ratio 5. Cash flows from operations 6. Debt 7. Interest cover 8. Debt cover Remember that some figures may be found in the notes to the financial statements rather than in the actual statements themselves. You are required to use the formulas and functions within Excel to calculate the ratios and produce charts and tables to be included in your report. You are required to submit your Excel workbook and your submission should include: a worksheet for calculations and a second worksheet showing charts produced from the calculations. You will be assessed on your use of formulas and functions and the presentation of information in graphs or tables. Please note, generally ratios would not be graphed individually, but grouped together logically to provide useful information. For example, if your company experienced liquidity problems then the liquidity ratios could be shown in one graph indicating the trend you will be identifying in your report. Please ensure any graphs or tables included in the report are correctly labelled. 2 2. Writing your Report Your report should be presented as a business report. A suggested format is provided in the following section. Your report should look as professional as possible, so please take care with the format and presentation of the information in your report. All tables and charts should be suitably labelled. You may use sub-headings and dot points in the report if you wish, but make sure you always use complete sentences and do not rely on headings to link the flow of the discussion. You will need to research information about the organisation, the industry and the economic environment. Please note as a Master student you are expected to acknowledge the source of all the information used in your report. The word limit for this report is a maximum. You should not exceed . Your word limit will not include your , contents page, calculations, graphs, appendices or reference list. NB The report must be submitted with an assignment coversheet available at Moodle: 3. Report Format The following headings do not represent all of the information expected in a professional business report. These headings have been selected as being the most appropriate to your level of study and the report that you need to write. Your report should include the following: - should include the name of the organisation, Student name and ID number, tutorial group/time and the date of submission. Executive summary- summarises the purpose and findings of the report (approximately ) Table of Contents - helps the reader locate sections within the report Introduction - provide background information on the topic of the report to engage the reader's interest in the topic. The introduction should also include a Statement of Purpose which will familiarise the reader with the structure and purpose of what they are about to read. Discussion - In the body of report you should use headings and sub headings. The information you should cover in the discussion includes: a. An overview of the organisation and any influences on its operations over the period of time under review. For example have there been any major events or circumstances affecting the company over the period being examined? Or are there any economic or other factors affecting the industry in which the company operates? (e.g. exchange rate fluctuations, drought affecting production etc). b. Analysis of the ratios - for each group of ratios Profitability, Liquidity and Capital Structure you are required to provide the following: o Suitably labelled and formatted charts or tables to illustrate your results o Discussion on each ratio in turn, indicating what the trend is showing over the five years. Your discussion should relate to any identified influencing factors. o Having considered each ratio under this heading you should conclude how the company is faring in terms of the overall ratio grouping. 3 Conclusion and summary - Provide an overall summary of the performance of the company as revealed by your analysis over the period being examined. Remind the reader of the main point(s) of the report and create the feeling of closing or "rounding off" the discussion. (You do not have to reach any overall conclusions about the organisation).