Country : Australia
Assignment Task :

Financial management has many dimensions and activities associated with it – as argued throughout the subject, the core ones are working capital management, capital budgeting and capital structure. Each of these are part of the responsibilities that fall within the realms of the finance component of any organization, regardless of its size (small or large) or purpose (profit or NPO). It is crucial for us, therefore, to understand the three areas above and demonstrate knowledge of how to apply the associated concepts and theories in practice – this is what the case study is meant to assess. 

Please read the case study carefully. You will be given 7 questions, that must be answered, relating to the following Case Study, in the report. 

Case Study - DuraBike 

DuraBike is a manufacturer of bikes that operates in New York. The company has been affected greatly by the COVID-19 pandemic – as the chief financial officer – you will have to act immediately as requested by the Board of Directors (BoD). Most prominently, DuraBike's market share and revenues have substantially decreased, with the demand for its bikes at low levels not seen since 2012. 

To overcome the obstacles entailed by such situation, the marketing department has done an intensive research and suggested to launch an aggressive 10-year marketing campaign whereby the payment period to wholesale customers is extended from 30 to 60 days, together with other marketing strategies, leading to (forecasted) increase in sales of 21,900 bikes per year. While the bikes are selling at $620/unit on average, DuraBike can purchase its material from its supplier at $300/bike and is liable to pay its supplier in 60 days on average. Manufacturing and selling the bikes takes a total of 25 days on average. To accommodate the increase in demand due to the campaign, DuraBike would need to buy new machines costing $16,000,000 today, with a lifetime of 10 years (assume straight-line depreciation and 'zero' salvage value). Moreover, the marketing campaign will involve a cash cost of $4,000,000 per year. 

As per the above forecasts and assume they remain the same every year, this 10-year campaign will be able to generate free cash flows of $2,585,600 per year (ignored the change in working capital). DuraBike currently has 80% equity and 20% debt in the balance sheet. Regarding the equity, DuraBike’s shares have a beta coefficient of 1.4, while the risk-free rate is 2.5% and the expected return on market portfolio is 8.5%. On the liability side, DuraBike is paying an average before-tax interest rate of 8% per annum on its borrowings (the tax-rate in the U.S. is 30%). 

Finally, to finance the strategy suggested by its marketing department, DuraBike must liquidate some investments due to tightened borrowing requirements. The company own two types of investments which can be sold: (i) Treasury bonds with $1,000 face value, 10 years to maturity, annual coupons of $50 and yield to maturity of 4% per year, and (ii) ordinary shares of another company, XYZ, which just paid a dividend of $0.50 per share, with dividend growth prospects of 5% per year and required rate of return of 10%. 

Key questions to be addressed 

Based on the case study above, you are to write a report addressing the following key questions: 

1. What are the impacts on operating cycle and cash conversion cycle due to the increase in the payment period (i.e., average collection period) from 30 to 60 days? Also, assuming the company is currently selling 100 bikes per day, by how much should the firm increase or reduce its working capital financing to accommodate to this change in average collection period? 2. Based on the forecasted sales, is it possible for DuraBike to achieve the 

corresponding cash and accounting break-even points? Based on your calculations for each - and from a pure cost management perspective - is the marketing department's proposal acceptable? Explain. 3. Calculate the weighted average cost of capital of DuraBike using available 

information (estimate the cost of equity using capital asset pricing model - CAPM). 4. Use Payback, Net-Present Value (NPV), and IRR to assess whether the 

investment in the new machines is warranted (assume a payback cut-off period of 7 years and use DuraBike's weighted average cost of capital as the discount rate). Also, explain to the BoD the benefits of the NPV vis-a-vis other capital budgeting methodologies. 5. If the market price of the Treasury bonds is currently at $1100 per unit, 

whereas the stock of XYZ is trading at $10 per share, which investment should DuraBike sell to raise the necessary funds? Explain the reasons behind your decision. 6. Based on the answers to the previous questions, determine whether to 

endorse the plan suggested by the marketing department to the BoD. Then discuss potential suggestions on how to improve the campaign. 7. Discuss the limitation of the above analyses. 

Format 

The answers to the above questions should be presented in a report format following AIB Style Guide (i.e., cover page including your name and student id, title and word count of the report, executive summary, body, list of references and appendix) - use AIB Report Template document. 

Requirements 

• You are to address the 7 Key Questions in a written report. 

• The required word length for this report is 2500 words (plus 10% tolerance). 

• You are required to use at least five (5) references for this report including sources such as books, industry-related journals, magazines, company documents and academic journal articles. 

 

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  • Posted on : June 16th, 2019
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