FINM7409 Financial Management for Decision Makers Semester 2, 2022
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Due Date: 5:00pm, 13 October 2022. Submit online via the Blackboard submission folders as explained later
in this document.
Background
Coles Group Limited (ASX: COL) is a public company that operates as a retailer in Australia. It operates
through Supermarkets, Liquor, and Express segments. The company operates 835 supermarkets; and
coles.com.au, which offers a choice of home delivery, including same-day, overnight drop and go services,
and pick up from click and collect locations. Its Coles Financial Services provides insurance, credit cards, and
personal loans to Australian families. The company is also involved in the retailing of liquor through its 933
stores under the Liquorland, First Choice, First Choice Liquor, and Vintage Cellars brand names. In addition,
it operates 711 fuel and convenience stores; and operates as flybuys loyalty program. The company was
formerly known as Coles Myer Ltd. and changed its name to Coles Group Limited. Coles Group Limited
was founded in 1914 and is based in Hawthorn East, Australia.
Woolworths Group Limited (ASX:WOW) is a public company that operates retail stores. It operates through
Australian Food, Australian B2B, New Zealand Food, BIG W, and other segments. The Australian Food
segment procures and resells food and related products and provides services to customers in Australia. It
operates 1,087 Woolworths supermarkets and Metro Food stores. The Australian B2B segment engages in
procurement and distribution of food and related products for resale to other businesses, as well as provision
of supply chain services to business customers in Australia. The New Zealand Food segment is involved in
the procurement and resale of food and drinks and provides services to retail customers in New Zealand.
This segment operates 190 countdown supermarkets. The BIG W segment procures and resells discount
general merchandise products to customers in Australia. This segment operates 176 BIG W stores.
Woolworths Group Limited also engages in the wholesale operation. The company was formerly known as
Woolworths Limited and changed its name to Woolworths Group Limited in December 2017. Woolworths
Group Limited was incorporated in 1924 and is based in Bella Vista, Australia.
General Description of Tasks
“You are an assistant analyst for an investment bank. As part of a team responsible for preparing a report that sets out
a complete financial analysis to the (adjusted) accounts of the above two companies, you contribute to this report by
conducting the ratio and common-size analyses of the Income Statements of these companies”
Files Provided on Blackboard
Excel spreadsheet template, named “FINM7409_Assignment_Template.xlsx”
o The income statement and balance sheet for the above two companies
o Complete this spreadsheet for the Requirement 1 below (the financial ratio analysis part)
Two financial reports for the companies:
o “Coles_Annual_Report_2021.pdf”
o “Woolworth_Annual_Report_2021.pdf”
The Coles and Woolworth financial reports serve as background information only. You do not need to use
these reports to conduct the analysis, but you may want to use them to glean any information you see useful
for your analysis and interpretation in the requirement 2 below (the essay part).
REQUIRED:
1) Using the Excel spreadsheet template FINM7409_Assignment_Template.xlsx available on
Blackboard, complete the ratio analysis as well as the common-size analysis for the Income
FINM7409 Financial Management for Decision Makers Semester 2, 2022
2
Statements for both companies. To fully complete this task, you are also required to fill out the
missing numbers in the “Other Inputs” worksheet by using Yahoo Finance to obtain share price and
dividend information. NOTE: Do not change the order or the name of the worksheets.
2) Using the financial ratios and the common-size reports you have completed in the Requirement 1)
above, write a short essay in a Word document (word limit: 700 words) to answer and discuss the
following questions:
a) What are the trends in gross profit margin, operating profit margin, and net profit margin over
the last 5 years?
b) What are the key drivers of these trends? You will need to make graphs to show such trends in
your analysis.
c) What factors do you think are the most important underlying the difference in financial
performance between the two companies over the 5-year period?
d) Going forward, in 2-5 years’ time, what do you think are the key challenges facing the two
companies to maintain their profitability?
Mark allocations
Excel computations (Part 1) 40
Essay (Part 2) 50
Presentation 10
Total 100
Submit Your Assignment
The folder “Assignment Submission” on Blackboard has three submissions:
1. Part 1 (Excel submission): This is where you submit your Excel file that contains your answers to
Part 1 of the Assignment. Your Excel file must be re-named in the following format:
“Assignment_XYZ.xlsx”, where XYZ stands for your student number. For example, if your student
number is 12345678, then your Excel file must be named “Assignment_12345678”. This Excel file will
be marked.
2. Part 2 (pdf submission): This is where you submit your pdf document (converted from Word) that
contains your answers to Part 2 of the Assignment. Name the file as “Assignment_XYZ.pdf”, where
XYZ is your student number. You may submit this part as many times as you like but only the last
submission will be marked.
3. Part 2 (pdf Turnitin Submission): This is where you submit the same pdf document above. Name
the file to “Assignment_XYZ.pdf”, where XYZ is your student number. Each time you submit the
file to Turnitin, you will get a report for the purpose of plagiarism detection. You may re-submit
through Turnitin as often as you like, and the last version should be submitted here and will be
marked.
Late submission will incur penalties as outlined in Section 5.3 of the Electronic Course Profile, which also
provides details about submission extension.