The required tasks associated with this research project are, based on using the information within the annual report documentation and any other documentation or sources of information considered to be relevant, to identify and outline the following aspects of Boral Limited's financial management policy:
1) The nature of the firm's working capital management policies. Focus in this determination should be on overall current asset investment and financing policies, rather than the company's adoption of policies relating to specific current asset categories, such as inventories or receivables.
The nature of the firm's working capital management policies
The focus here is for you to operationalise the issues that were discussed in class in Week 9 (Lecture 9), and use the annual report information to outline (with explanation and justification) the working capital stance (policies) employed by Boral Limited. This is based on identifying:
- Firstly, their current asset investment policy, which relates to the types of current assets they invest in and the magnitude of current asset investment relative to requirements and the level of current liabilities.
- Such as do they hold large amounts of cash, liquid assets, inventory or other current assets?
- Do they hold large proportions of current assets relative to current liabilities and total assets? Can you classify their current asset investment level as representing a 'fat cat' or 'lean-and-mean' strategy, for instance?
- Secondly, their overall working capital (current assets and permanent assets) financing policy, which relates to how Boral Limited funds their temporary and permanent asset requirements.
- Do they employ a maturity matching, aggressive or conservative working capital policy, and what are the impacts of the observed policy choice? This could be assessed in a range of ways, such as comparing current asset and current liability levels and comparing permanent asset (such as property, plant and equipment) level with long-term financing sources (such as long-term debt and equity). If you want to evaluate this quantitatively, then you might think about calculating relevant liquidity and activity ratios and other indicators such as the firm's cash conversion cycle (CCC).
- Has there been modification to these policies and how might this relate to changes in other firm attributes and performance?
Major sources of information:
- The balance sheet on page 68 of the 2012 Annual Report provides an overall picture of Boral Limited's asset and liability structure (both current and non-current). The notes associated with the different asset and liability items can be reviewed for more specific detail about these items
- The cash flow statement and the income statement provide information about the level of borrowing costs (interest expenses) and financing activities, which tells you something about whether financing costs and sources of financing are changing