Question 1

 

 

Jack Tar, CFO of Sheetbend & Halyard, Inc. opened the company confidential

envelope. It contained the draft of a competitive bid for a contract to supply duffel

canvas to the U.S. Navy. The cover memo from Sheetbend’s CEO asked Mr. Tar to

review the bid before it was submitted.  

The bid and its supporting documents had been prepared by Sheetbend’s sales

staff. It called for Sheetbend to supply 100,000 yards of duffel canvas per year for 5

years. The proposed selling price was fixed at $30 per yard.

Mr. Tar was not usually involved in sales, but this bid was unusual in at least two

respects. First, if accepted by the navy, it would commit Sheetbend to a fixed price,

long-term contract. Second, producing the duffel canvas would require an

investment of $1.5 million to purchase machinery and to refurbish Sheetbend’s

plant in Pleasantboro, Maine. Mr. Tar set to work and by the end of the week had

collected the following facts and assumptions:

 The plant in Pleasantboro had been built in the early 1900s and is now idle.

The plant was fully depreciated on Sheetbend’s books, except for the purchase

cost of the land (in 1947) of $10,000.

 Now that the land was valuable shorefront  property, Mr. Tar thought the land

and the idle plant could be sold, immediately or in the future, for $600,000.

 Refurbishing  the plant would cost $500,000. This investment would be

depreciated for tax purposes on the 10-year MACRS schedule.

 The  new machinery would cost $1 million. This investment could be

depreciated on the 5-year MACRS schedule.

 The refurbished plant and new machinery would last for many years. However,  

the remaining market for duffel canvas was small, and it was not clear that

additional orders could be obtained once the navy contract was finished. The

machinery was custom built and could be used only for duffel canvas. Its

second-hand value at the end of 5 years was probably zero.

 Table below shows the sales staff ’s forecasts of income from the navy

contract. Mr. Tar reviewed this forecast and decided that its assumptions were

reasonable, except that the forecast used book, not tax, depreciation.

 But the forecast income statement contained no mention of working capital.  

Mr. Tar thought that working capital would average about 10 percent of sales.

Armed with this information, Mr. Tar constructed a spreadsheet to calculate the

NPV of the duffel canvas project, assuming that Sheetbend’s bid would be

accepted by the navy.

He had just finished debugging the spreadsheet when another confidential

envelope arrived from Sheetbend’s CEO. It contained a firm offer from a Maine

real estate developer to purchase Sheetbend’s Pleasantboro land and plant for

$1.5 million in cash.

Should Mr. Tar recommend submitting the bid to the navy at the proposed price of

$30 per yard? The discount rate for this project is 12 percent.

 

Table 1: Forecasted income statement for the navy duffel canvas project (dollar figures in thousands, except price per yard)  (file attached)

 

Notes on the table

1- Yards sold and price per yard would be fixed by contract.

2- Costs of goods include fixed cost of $300,000 per year plus variable costs of $ 18 per year. Costs are expected to increase at the inflation rate of 4 per cent per year.

3- Depreciation: A $1 million investment in machinery is depreciated straight-line over 5 years($200,000 per year). The $500,000 cost of refurbushing the Pleasantboro plant is depreciated straight-line over 10 years ($50,000 per year).

 

 

 

 

 

Question 2:

 

Critically appraise how companies set their financing – both short-term and long-

term policies, and explain the factors that a company should consider in setting its

policies to raise capital for investment and in determining the level of debt equity

balance to be maintained. The debt and equity financing strategy should be

highlighted in detail.

Support your arguments by reference to TWO FTSE100 firms in the SAME

INDUSTRY. Your comments should incorporate both theoretical and academic

arguments and real world practices. You should research the subject beyond the

basic facts, and must provide calculations, references and critical commentary to

support the points. You should also provide a brief introduction on the key issues

and a conclusion consistent to your discussion.  

 

Note: You can visit the link below to select one industry of your choice from the

available list of industries.

 

 

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-markets/stocks/indices/constituents-indices.html?index=MCX

 

Please note both the firms must come from the same industry. You are suggested

not to use banks, and companies engaged in financial services.