REQUIREMENTS	% of Total Grade
1. Identification and Analysis of Issues (80%)
a. Company backgrounds, financial statement information, stock prices	30%
b. Horizontal analysis	15%
c. Vertical analysis	15%
d. Ratio Analysis	20%
2. Recommendation (20%)
a. Provides appropriate recommendation given the facts and analysis completed	20%
Total	100%

You have been an Analyst for the professional service firm, FINACC LLP. Your firm specializes in providing a wide variety of internal business solutions for different clients. On your first day on the job, you have helped the Manager in the Consulting area in making investment decisions for one of your large clients, Big Spenders Inc. Big Spenders Inc. was very impressed with your report and has asked your Manager if you could work on another project.

Additional Information

Big Spenders Inc. plans to expand its portfolio of investments and requires your firm to suggest and evaluate several Canadian equity investment opportunities. Your responsibility is to pick an industry that you are an expert in and choose a listed company that you think will be a great potential investment opportunity (the target company). You will then have to perform a comparative analysis of the profitability and financial health of this company compared to one of its competitors (the competitor). Finally, you will be asked to give recommendations on why you think your target company will be a great investment for Big Spenders Inc.

As you are new to the job, your Manager has provided you with some initial instructions to carry out this project. He recommends that you break the project into parts.

Based on the information obtained from the two companies' income statements as well as the background information, you are to compare the performance of the two companies using financial statement analysis. Begin with performing the horizonal analysis, the vertical analysis and the ratio analysis. Discuss any other issues that you believe are relevant to the investment decision and make a recommendation to Big Spenders Inc. for whether your target would be a good investment.

Big Spenders Inc. would likely be a long-term client of FINACC LLP if you could once again gain their trust from this project. The Manager would like you to prepare the final report and trust that your analysis will be thorough and complete as always.