CIMA CIMAPRO19-CS3-1 Practice Exam Questions & Answers

Wodd's Chairman enters your office:

"I am glad I caught you, I am looking for some advice, but I do not wish to involve your boss at this stage, or any of the other executive directors.

I have been approached by Darrell's Chairman concerning the possibility of a merger between our two companies. I was a little surprised because it has apparently, according to a press article, been in talks with at least one of our competitors and I suspect that it is keen to merge with any large company that can offer some synergy. I understand that Tabel, another major forestry company, has already rejected its proposal.

I happen to know that Darrell has invested a little too heavily in its new MDF factory. It is state of the art, but it has to operate at close to full capacity in order to be economic and Darrell just hasn't got sufficient forestry resources to keep the factory operating at full volume without destroying its own forests.

We are attractive to merge with because we own large forests that can sustain Darrell's needs. We don't manufacture MDF ourselves, but we have lots of experience of supplying this market with raw material. We would divert lots of this output to Darrell's factory. Darrell believes that it would be possible to dominate the MDF industry if it merged with a company such as ourselves. The fact that we were quite liquid at the end of last year also helps, because I understand that Darrell is having a few cash flow problems.

Its Chairman proposes a full merger. This will be achieved by the creation of a new parent company which will acquire existing equity in both companies through an exchange of shares. He and I will head a special nomination committee to select the most suitable Board for the new company and then I will step down from the Board while he continues as Chairman of the new company.

Needless to say, this is all highly confidential.

Do you think that it sounds as if there are potential and achievable synergies between Wodd and Darrell?

Would you regard it as a gross ethical breach to keep this conversation just between the two of us for the time being, without warning your boss, until I have had the chance to negotiate further with my counterpart at Darrell?"

Reference Material:

Reference Material:

You have received the following email from Marcus Svenson, Finance Director:

From: Marcus Svenson, Finance Director

To: Senior Finance Manager

FW: Pricing

Hi,

I am forwarding an email from Sarah Johns.

Sarah has not been with us for very long and this is her first experience of dealing with a currency price movement.

I am really busy, so I need you to respond to her requests. Please email her as soon as possible.

Marcus

From: Sarah Johns, Marketing Director

To: Marcus Svenson, Finance Director

Subject: USD movement

Hi Marcus,

A lot of our biggest customers are threatening to cancel orders unless we reduce our selling prices. Timber and associated products are commodity items that are priced in USD, so I thought that our prices would automatically remain competitive regardless of what happened to the USD. I am particularly confused over domestic sales, because many of the customers who have threatened to cancel are based in this country and we invoice them in M$.

Please help me to understand why the M$/USD exchange rate can affect our competitive position in this way.

I also wish to know why you have chosen to do nothing to hedge against this risk. If you look at the attached article you will see that the USD is an issue in the business news.

Sarah

From: Jan Archibald, Group Chief Financial Officer, Fouce Oil

To: William Seaton, Director of Finance

Subject: Sale of oil fields

Dear William,

As you know, the Board of Fouce Oil is keen that you should operate in an autonomous manner. However, we believe that it is our duty to ask you to reconsider a key issue in Slide's approach to doing business.

Over the years you have been very successful indeed in finding significant oil fields and bringing those to production. We have been gratified to observe your efforts in doing so and we believe that all shareholders have benefitted from the wealth that you have created.

The Board of Fouce Oil believes that the time has come for Slide to stop giving the fruits of its labour away to other companies. We believe that Slide should retain any successful oil wells and start to earn revenues from the sale of the oil itself rather than the sale of the oil wells. We believe that the stock market would respond favourably to such a development, to the mutual benefit of all.

Best Wishes

Jan

SIMULATION

A month later, you receive the following email:

Reference Material:

From: Hesham El-Sayed. Independent Non-executive

Director

To: Romuald Marek. Chief Finance Officer

Subject: Collapse of fuel supplier

Hi Romuald

I am writing to give you some advance notice of an internal audit investigation that has been commissioned by the Audit Committee

Just over a year ago. Planejoos, a newly formed company, approached the management team at Airfield's Capital City International (CCI) airport and offered to take over refueling operations at Starport Planejoos offered a higher percentage of revenue than the existing supplier was paying CCI's management team agreed and appointed Planejoos rather than renew the existing supplier's contract.

CCI was unable to conduct the usual background and credit checks on Planejoos for two reasons. Firstly, Planejoos was a new company and so did not have an extensive credit history that could be checked Secondly CCI was under time pressure to reach a decision on whether to renew the existing supplier's contract or allow it to expire

CCI's management team claimed that it had acted quickly in order to benefit from the additional revenue that could be earned from dealing with Planejoos The management team was acting on the basis that it had an ethical duty to maximise the wealth of Airfield's shareholders and that maximising revenues from fuel sales through this agreement with Planejoos was consistent with that ethical duty.

Unfortunately, as a new company. Planejoos struggled to obtain trade credit and the high demand for fuel put the company's cash flows under extreme pressure Receipts from sales lagged behind payments for inventory Planejoos has now collapsed, leaving a large trade receivable that CCI will have to write off as uncollectable CCI had permitted this receivable to accumulate rather

than pressing for payment and so putting Planejoos under further pressure.

Fortunately, the previous fuel supplier was prepared to return to CCI.

Kind regards

Six months have passed since you briefed William Seaton, Director of Finance on the relationship between Slide and Fouce Oil.

You have been called into William Seaton's office:

''We had a visit from the Chief Executive Officer of Fouce Oil yesterday. We had not received any prior notice of the purpose of the visit and assumed that he simply wished to make a courtesy call while he was visiting Fouce Oil's subsidiary in this country. Instead, he came to initiate discussions over a strategy of collaboration on oil exploration.

Rather than explain things myself, please read the memorandum of understanding that he has asked us to sign. It is self-explanatory.

Once you have read the memorandum, I would like you to email me your thoughts on the following:

The suitability of this proposal for Slide.

The likelihood that Fouce Oil's strategic interests will clash with our own.

The strategic risks that are likely to arise because of this arrangement.

The manner in which this strategic relationship should be communicated to the stock market.

I realise that this is a challenging request, but I need your response quickly because we need to respond to Fouce Oil.''

The Memorandum of Understanding can be found by clicking on the Reference Materials button.