Financial Report and Qualitative Analysis at TESCO Assignment Sample

Finance Lessons For Managers Assignment

Part A Core areas

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1. Critical analysis and discussion of the rationale considering for investment

Investment decision-making technique is one of the important techniques for an investor because based on a decision they make a decision as to whether he should invest in the company or not. Investment decisions can be made based on various methods and techniques such as cash flow, financial statement, expert opinion of an expert, economical condition, opportunity for company and financial ratios (Tao et al. 2021). Investors can use investment decision techniques according to their need and necessity. Financial ratio is one of the popular methods that is used by investors around the world. Financial statements, cash flow and other financial reports can be analysed by this method easily and profoundly. It can evaluate various situations in terms of liquidity, efficiency of management, working management, profitability management and so on. In addition, companies generally follow their earlier trend in their operation and activity due to this reason financial ratio can give effective results (Shah Ahmad & Mahmood, 2018). Financial ratios use historical data of a company though implication of the ratio and evaluation ratio can be different from one sector to another or industry. Implication and affectivity of ratio in investment and use ratio for other industry or competitor will be discussed following:

Implication of financial ratios for investment

Ratio is one of the invaluable tools for decision making about a specific company that investors take interest in invest. Investor and professional analysis used varieties of ratio for making decision. Various types of ratios can be calculated by an analyst's high profitability ratio, liquidity ratios, solvency ratios and valuation ratios are important ratios for making decisions about investment (Amalia, Fadjriah & Nugraha, 2020). Ratio can be calculated by dividing one figure or variable with another figure or variable. Financial ratio takes data from financial statements that are published by the company.

Profitability ratio of an organ situation evaluates the ability of a company in terms of earning profit (Husain & Sunardi, 2020). Based on a ratio investors make decisions whether the company will be able to earn profit and dividend distribution depending on the earning capacity of the company. Profitability ratio takes gross, operating, net profit or loss, sales, cash flow, assets, equity, assets and so on (Herman Ruslim, 2019). This ratio can evaluate or analyse business productivity from various ranges and in different scenarios. Gross margin, operating margin, net profit margin, return on asset are key ratios of profitability.

Liquidity ratio measures another ability of a company, which is debt repayment. It helps investors to understand whether a company has the ability to repay debt quickly or not. In addition, this ratio indicates how effectively companies use assets for repayment or cover expenses (Ningsih & Sari, 2019). Operational efficiency of a company can be evaluated by this method. Some of the key liquidity ratios are current ratio, quick ratio, cash ratio and so on. A company can be bankrupt or face several legal troubles in case they will not be able to pay debt to creditors. Inability or failure to repay debt creates trouble for the company operationally and financially both. Investors identify this matter and make decisions based on this.

Liquidity ratio deals with short term finance whereas solvency ratio deals with long term finance (Madushanka & Jathurika, 2018). Investors get an idea whether a company will be able to repay their long debt effectively or not. A company with minimal debt is favourable for investment because it will not create trouble for company and investor both. This ratio evaluates the relation between debt with total assets, equity, and interest coverage and so on. It also indicated the ability of management to understand and evaluate management of financial managers.

Attractiveness of investment in a company can be analysed by valuation ratios and it can be commonly quoted and used by investors. This ratio gives an idea to investors whether stock is expensive or inexpensive in the market (Li, Xiao & Guo, 2019). Lower valuation ratio can attract investors whereas a higher ratio can distract investors from investment. Primary used ratios are price to earnings ratio, price to books ratio, price to sales ratio and so on. Investors understand the performance of a company in the stock market such as dividend, earning per share, rice movement, return from share and so on by using this ratio.

Impacts on the use of ratio with other industry

The importance of financial ratio is not limited to performance, profitability, liquidity of a single company, and investment decision. Financial ratios can be used in competitive analysis for organizations. They can help to compare financial performance to similar firms in the industry along with the company's position in the market. Market gaps, competitive advantages, strengths, and weaknesses can be analyzed by financial ratios (Zahoor, 2016). Investors can use this information to formulate investment planning based on this.

Competitive analysis such as profitability analysis helps to understand which company is more profitable, has a high ability to repay debt, issues a high rate of dividend, and so on. Ratio considers financial data of annual reports of all companies yet outcomes of the ratio are nearly similar due to identical formulas (Mason, 2019). The valuation or outcome of the ratios is considerable due to the identical formula and method of calculation. Trend lines can develop based on financial ratio and financial ratio. Investors can collect financial information over a long period and based on that they can easily create a trend line. The performance of companies can be compared based on the trend line.

This method cannot be used for comparison of other industries or sectors and it is one of the limitations. Every industry has different behaviour and nature in terms of debt, profit, and so on. For instance, the debt of heavy industry is always higher than IT companies whereas the profitability of the real estate sector is low due to external and internal environment issues whereas the profitability of the software industry is high. Due to this reason, a comparison of two different industries can give a vague picture. An investor can use this method in case he wants to select the best investment sector.

2. A comprehensive discussion of the limitations associated with financial ratios

Analyzing the financial amount of the organization has delivered different ratios that help to evaluate financial performance. Operating weight ratio analysis financial professionals need to understand its limitations. Limitation of ratio analysis would help to take precautions about calculation errors.

• Difficult to analyze different companies from different industries: Compression-related analysis of two companies' ratio analysis fails to compare their financial performance. Different business operations of both companies have made unrealistic differences in profitability and liquidity. As an example of ratio analysis of different sectors where one company belongs to the airline business and another company is oriented with software business (Thomas et al. 2019). In This case ratio analysis of both companies, the comparison is not possible. The airline business is heavily capital intensive where low financial liquidity is the common factor due to heavy debts volume. On the other side in software companies, fixed assets are not required heavily like airline businesses where high liquidity will result. For investors, it would be difficult to choose an efficient company for investment. Ratio analysis would project a more efficient result to comparison between companies that belong to the same industry.
• Historical financial data: ratio calculation of a company based on previous financial data that has presented the previous condition of the company. Hence, ratio analysis is not able to deliver the future prospects of the company. Ratio analysis based on the past data has not been effective to present the context of future possibilities of the company.
• Avoiding inflation effect: The inflation rate has made an impact on organization profitability due to high expenditure. Due to avoiding inflation rate in the ratio calculation manipulate financial professional to analysis performance of an organization. Inflation rate could manipulate the profitability for the short term where ratio analysis could fail to project exact results to users.
• Change in the accounting practice: Through the ratio analysis depends on accounting practice where a change in accounting practice has affected the output of the ratio analysis (Craig et al. 2020). Moreover, financial accounting practices based on some assumptions where the evaluation of ratio could fail to present the proper output.
• Change of operational activity: Change in operational practice organization has changed their supply chain where product selling price and margin. Through ratio analysis financial professionals have failed to meet up with those changes in ratio analysis. Operational expenditure arises in the financial report that has changed the conclusion regarding the operation margin ratio. Comparative analysis of the operating margin analysis after and before the change would deliver different opinions about performance.
• Manipulation in a financial statement: Financial reports contain data according to management decisions where manipulation of financial data has raised problems for ratio analysis. This artificial financial report has delivered different results to the user wherefore actual financial performance of the company could not be possible to find out through ratio matrix.

3. Performance of the Company against Competitor

TESCO is one of the largest retail companies in the UK and Sainsbury's is the second-largest company in the UK market. TESCO is an old company and they have a large customer base in the UK and globally both. TESCO provides service in retail stores and gives online shopping options to customers. This approach helps them not increase their business in the market. Seventy-seven percentage online sales have increased from last year and 79% of online shopping has fallen under home delivery (Tescoplc.com, 2022). Sales have grown in large stores of the company and the company has increased its capacity 60% in 2021. In addition, online sales perception has increased six to 9% this year. Primary problems that TESCO faced in 2021 are macro-economic downturn, BREXIT, COVID 19, climate change, data security breach, and so on.

Sainsbury's gives priority to the area of food, which gives high benefit, to brands that deliver core food business, reduction of cost, and try to connect with their customer for increased efficiency. 850000 online orders get by Sainsbury's every week and they have a strong customer base in both offline and online sectors. Grocery sales have increased 7.8% and supermarket sales have increased 2% (About.sainsburys.co.uk, 2022). 5%. On the other hand, supermarket sales of TESCO have increased seven to 9%. This increased sales of TESCO helped to increase revenue. Sainsbury's gave focus on high value and effective pricing policy for customers. On the other hand, TESCO gives focus on the quality of product, low pricing, and offers a large number of products to customers.

TESCO invests large amounts in its innovation and research purposes. It helped them to identify food and other products, which attract customers easily (Tescoplc.com, 2022). On the other hand, they offer various offers such as discounts, promotions, membership and so on. It helps them to retain a customer in the organization. In addition, free delivery and online accounting on production helps to improve business conditions. Both of the companies spend large amounts at the time of COVID and it creates a profound impact on the sales and profit of the company. On other hand, Sainsbury's and TESCO have several other businesses, which also make an impact on tiger total sales. Sales of the division have decreased at the time of COVID. Sales of TESCO and Sainsbury are both increased due to large demand in the market. TESCO has a large number of stores and delivery teams, which help them to maintain sales.

4. Financial Review of the Company

A financial review of TESCO and Sainsbury's can be done based on an analysis of financial ratios.

Table 1: Ratio Calculation

The financial ratios of TESCO and Sainsbury's have been calculated in table 1. Four factors have been calculated to evaluate the performance of companies such as profitability, liquidity, solvency, and valuation ratios. Performance of TESCO and comparative analysis of TESCO and Sainsbury’s can be discussed below:

Profitability Ratio

Operating, net profit margin, and return in asset ratio have been cast to evaluate the profitability position of the company. The operating and net profit margin ratio evaluates the relation between net profit, operating profit, and sales. On the other hand, return on assets evaluates the utilization of assets in terms of profit (Al Hayek, 2018). Operating profit margin decreased TESCO and Sainsbury's. On the other hand, the Net profit margin increased for TESCO and the margin decreased for Sainsbury's. Return on asset of TESCO has been improved whereas it has been decreased in Sainsbury's. The primary reason behind the poor performance of Sainsbury's is the increase in the cost of sales and administrative costs. The profitability position of TESCO is better than Sainsbury's.

Liquidity Ratio

The liquidity ratio of a company evaluates the ability of a company to repay short-term debt. The current ratio and quick ratio have been calculated to understand liquidity position. The current ratio identifies the ability to repay liabilities by using current assets whereas the quick ratio evaluates ability by using current assets other than inventories (Husna & Satria, 2019). The current and quick ratio below one indicates that the ability of the company is poor. The current and quick ratios of both companies are below one and it implies that companies do not have liquidity. TESCO’s Ratios have decreased in 2021 and it implies that they are gradually moving towards bankruptcy. TESCO’s liquidity ratios are better than Sainsbury’s and it indicated that TESCO’s liquidity position is better than Sainsbury’s (Refer to appendix 1).

Solvency Ratio

Debt ratio, debt to equity ratio, interest coverage ratios are calculated to measure the solvency position of TESCO. The debt ratio identifies the position or percentage of asset companies based on liability (Falk & Steiger, 2018). The debt ratio of TESCO has been improved in 2021 because a low ratio is good for the company. In addition, the debt ratio is better in TESCO due to the lower value in the ratio. Debt to equity ratio measures liabilities out of total equity. The debt to equity ratio has been improved due to a decrease or repayment of liability (Irman & Purwati, 2020). On the other hand, the debt to equity ratio is much higher in Sainsbury's. In addition, the debt to equity ratio of Sainsbury's has been increased due to the decrease of equity. The interest coverage ratio evaluates total expenses based on operating income. The interest coverage ratio of TESCO has decreased yet it is in an effective position (Steer, 2018). On the other hand, the interest coverage ratio of Sainsbury's has decreased due to loss in business.

Valuation Ratio

The price-earnings ratio evaluates the relation between earnings per share and price per share (Safitri et al. 2020). The price-earnings ratio of TESCO improved due to higher profit whereas the ratio has been decreased in Sainsbury's due to loss. The earnings per share ratio identify earnings per share. It has been improved in TESCO and decreased by Sainsbury's. The dividend Yield Ratio calculates the amount of return that is earned by investors based on the share price. Sainsbury's gives a dividend instead of record loss and their dividend yield has been increased in 2021 due to high dividend payment. On the other hand, the dividend of TESCO also increased; yet lower than Sainsbury's. Valuation ratio indicated that the performance of TESCO is better than Sainsbury's.

5. Conclusion and Recommendation

Conclusion

This report has discussed TESCO and its primary competitor Sainsbury’s. Importance of financial ratio has been discussed for taking investment decisions. Methods and ratios which help to make decisions about investment have been discussed in this part. Limitation of ratio has been discussed and method of use ratio for competitive analysis between different and same industries. On the other hand, financial ratios have been calculated for TESCO and Sainsbury’s. Based on the ratio, a financial review has been conducted in this report. In addition, qualitative analysis has been done on this report to analyse performance of both companies. It can be conclude that financial performance and deposition of TESCO is much better than Sainsbury’s.

Recommendation

Financial performance and condition of TESCO is good yet they have weaknesses in some areas. Recommendation will provide below based on the weakness or issue:

• TESCO needs to focus on reduction of current liabilities because they have more current liabilities than current assets.
• Dividend of the company is lower than the competitor is and demotivated investors, which can have a negative impact on the company.
• Operating profit of the company has decreased instead of increased sales. Management needs to focus on operating cost for improvement of operating margin and profit.

Part B

1. Analysis of financial Decision Making and Performance management

I have worked in Tesco plc as a junior accountant where I have learned about many accounting practices. Additionally, what are the challenges faced by account professionals that I have learned from this job. Due to low “operating profit margin” the organization is struggling to meet up all expenditures like administrative costs. Through a decision-making approach to gathering information, the financial department is proceeding with alternative ways to reduce operating costs. As a junior accountant, I have faced challenges with fewer sales in the last few years. Fall in sales and not manageable operating expenditure both makes a negative impact on operating profit.

Moreover, due to poor customer service, Tesco plc failed to maintain the “net profit margin”. In the FY years, sales volume comes down to 50 percent which has an impact on net profit. Additionally, the accounting scandal management of the company has faced huge fines due to manipulation in accounting. The net profit of Tesco has fallen due to over-high expenditure due to heavy debts. Most of the percentage of the net profit is used for paying off expenditures regarding debts (Zhang et al. 2020). Associate with Tesco I observed that management not focusing on business expansion rather focusing on net profit. Tesco is one of the largest retail companies where management has more opportunities to expand their business. Falling sales growth in the recent year affected the financial condition of Tesco where Tesco failed to meet customer expectations about product quality (Yildiz et al. 2020). Operating a business with retail stores Tesco Company has a small range of products and small retail stores create limitations to expand business in other segments. Most retail stores ar4e not have enough space to store products as per demand. In the terms of the high demand for products, retail stores are not able to provide sufficient products for consumers.

Recommendation based on my work experience

Associated with the Tesco Company as a junior accountant I could have suggested some recommendations that would help to regain financial strength. Those recommendations have been delivered below.

• Management of Tesco needs to analyze the expenditure due to high debts. High interest expenditure on High debts management needs to think about selling stock to raise funds that could reduce the volume of the debt. Moreover, reducing debts automatically enhances the net profit of this organization. Issues during the generation of net profit management have to concentrate on raising funds through alternative ways.
• Operating expenditure should be managed by the accounting team where high propagating expenses impact negatively on operating profit. Moreover, the production of new products could manage the cost. Average costing would raise an advantage to the organization where management could offer new products for consumers at affordable prices.
• Retail stores are not able to store products due to a shortage of arrears which area management needs to implement in this organization to make effective use of per square feet. Increasing debts of Tesco need to issue further share in the market to arrange more funds. According to data and facts increasing interest affects the financial performance of Tesco. Additionally, expenditure on interest creates a crisis in the liquidity where management is not proceeding with new products. To mitigate the liquidity crisis it can be accommodated that management needs to focus on cash flow where optimization of working capital could enhance financial liquidity.
• Due to unethical manipulation in financial reports management has faced legal issues that also affect brand reputation. As the suggestion, management needs to take strict action on those malfunctioning in accounting books. The brand reputation of a company attracts investors where malfunction in accounting fails to gain the trust of investors. Proper filling of accounting records could attract investors for further investment.

2. Personal Self Reflection

According to personal experience in financial accounting skills, I thought about developing analyzing capacity about the financial reports of different companies. In their current situation, I have learned about “ratio analysis,” “working capital” analysis for critical analysis of the company performance. Additionally, the “cash budget” and cash flow calculator help me evaluate the financial stability of the organization. Moreover, a cash budget helps to predict the funds required for any particular project. Having the ability to make financial reports is the fact that helps me most to prepare fully accounting reports. Moreover apply different activities in the accounting process like “bank reconciliation statement” for proper journal entries in accounting books. Learning about accounting in college is the current capability.

Action plan of enhancing accounting practice in workplace I would learn about the high level of analysis with financial models. That would help me evaluate the performance of the company. Usually using ratio analysis for presenting conclusions on financial performance is not enough. Additionally, learning about the high level of analytics process will help to establish my career. Moreover, learning of ERP system for accounting process would be a key to success where learning aboutt accounting software is going to enhance my grip in accounting. Accounting is the process that takes so long for proper calculation where I will learn about strategic thinking that would enhance my work quality and help to deliver my job in time. Strong understanding about accounting software helps to manage accounting practice in professional life. Recent years every organization has used accounting software for registering accounting practice. Learning about the accounting software helps to evaluate the more efficiency of mine that would provide wider understanding of accounting. Accounting process is a time consuming activity where collection of financial data and proper posting calculation need time. I have learned time management is essential for accounting practice and that is why I will learn about time management. Using of accounting software also helps me to do my accounting practice in the future time management I would be able to complete my work before the deadline in future workplace. Learning about ERP systems would enhance my work quality. Moreover, using software in accounting helps to record data with proper manners. According to the requirements of accounting practice, those would be my action plan for enhancing my knowledge in accounting practice.

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