Finance reprot
Analyse and discuss the recent financial performance (the last five years) of your company. Your analysis must compare your company to one other listed company operating in the same business sector, using the Financial Times classification of business sectors. Your analysis and discussion should consider the following areas:

(a) Historical trends in accounting statement entries (for example, turnover, profit, dividends, cash flow from operations, long-term debt and so on);
(25 marks)

(b) Historical trends and inter-company comparisons of relevant accounting ratios (for example return on capital employed, net profit margin, earnings per share, debt/equity ratio, current ratio and so on);
(75 marks)
(Total: 100 marks)

Your assignment MUST be word-processed and no more than 2,000 words in length (minimum 1,500 words). Calculations may be included in an appendix and are not included in the word count. A summary of your calculated ratios must be included in the body of your assignment for ease of viewing. You are recommended to use a report format for the sake of clarity. You are advised to look at relevant material from a variety of relevant sources, including the module material and media sources such as the financial press and academic journals.

Any sources of information you use must be clearly identified, using academic referencing. All quotations made directly from books, journals or other information media must be clearly acknowledged by using footnotes and quotation marks.

You are reminded that plagiarism (the deliberate inclusion in work submitted for assessment of a substantial unacknowledged portion of someone else’s material, whether published or not) is a breach of University assessment regulations and may be dealt with severely. Please refer to the information overleaf concerning referencing and academic integrity.

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The following information has been taken from the Sheffield Hallam University Library and Information Services: Library Resources web page and you are expected to read it carefully and understand it, particularly the information about academic integrity. Your assignment must use referencing of an academic standard. If you are unsure about any issue relating to academic integrity, please discuss the issue with your module leader or module tutor.

Referencing
Accurate and consistent referencing is essential in all academic work. Whenever you refer to either the work or ideas of someone, or are influenced by another’s work, you must acknowledge this. Similarly if you make a direct quotation from someone’s work this should be referred to accurately.
The LITS guide to Referencing and Citations is an ebook, available online via the Library Catalogue. It offers detailed guidance, based on a range of British and international standards, for producing references and bibliographies according to the Harvard method. You can download a PDF version of this here:
• http://catalogue.shu.ac.uk/articles/1460281.9498/1.PDF
There are a number of systems of referencing. The one described in these guides is called the Harvard System. You may be asked to use another system, such as a numeric system. If this is the case, please refer to your course handbook or tutors for guidance.
Academic Integrity
If your work is not properly referenced it may appear that you are trying to present someone else’s ideas as your own. This is plagiarism and it is considered to be a form of cheating. It is your responsibility to ensure that your work conforms to the University’s standards of academic integrity.