PB Co uses 2,500 units of component X per year. The company has calculated that the cost o

A shareholder of QSX Co is concerned about the recent performance of the company and has collected the following fi nancial information.

One of the items discussed at a recent board meeting of QSX Co was the dividend payment for 2010. The fi nance director proposed that, in order to conserve cash within the company, no dividend would be paid in 2010, 2011 and 2012. It was expected that improved economic conditions at the end of this three-year period would make it possible to pay a dividend of 70c per share in 2013. The fi nance director expects that an annual dividend increase of 3% per year in subsequent years could be maintained.

The current cost of equity of QSX Co is 10% per year.

Assume that dividends are paid at the end of each year.

Required:

(a) Calculate the dividend yield, capital gain and total shareholder return for 2008 and 2009, and briefl y discuss your fi ndings with respect to:

(i) the returns predicted by the capital asset pricing model (CAPM);

(ii) the other fi nancial information provided. (10 marks)

(b) Calculate and comment on the share price of QSX Co using the dividend growth model in the following circumstances:

(i) based on the historical information provided;

(ii) if the proposed change in dividend policy is implemented. (7 marks)

(c) Discuss the relationship between investment decisions, dividend decisions and fi nancing decisions in the context of fi nancial management, illustrating your discussion with examples where appropriate. (8 marks)

Bokco is a manufacturing company. It has a small permanent workforce but it is also reliant on temporary workers, whom it hires on three-month contracts whenever production requirements increase. All buying of materials is the responsibility of the company’s purchasing department and the company’s policy is to hold low levels of raw materials in order to minimise inventory holding costs. Bokco uses cost plus pricing to set the selling prices for its products once an initial cost card has been drawn up. Prices are then reviewed on a quarterly basis. Detailed variance reports are produced each month for sales, material costs and labour costs. Departmental managers are then paid a monthly bonus depending on the performance of their department.

One month ago, Bokco began production of a new product. The standard cost card for one unit was drawn up to include a cost of $84 for labour, based on seven hours of labour at $12 per hour. Actual output of the product during the first month of production was 460 units and the actual time taken to manufacture the product totalled 1,860 hours at a total cost of $26,040.

After being presented with some initial variance calculations, the production manager has realised that the standard time per unit of seven hours was the time taken to produce the first unit and that a learning rate of 90% should have been anticipated for the first 1,000 units of production. He has consequently been criticised by other departmental managers who have said that, ‘He has no idea of all the problems this has caused.’

Required:

(a) Calculate the labour efficiency planning variance and the labour efficiency operational variance AFTER taking account of the learning effect. Note: The learning index for a 90% learning curve is –0·1520 (5 marks)

(b) Discuss the likely consequences arising from the production manager’s failure to take into account the learning effect before production commenced. (5 marks)

One company exports 100 cases of goods to London. The volume per case is 40cm x 30cm x 20cm, and the gross weight is 30kg. On the List of Classification of Commodities, goods fall within the scope of class 10, and the freight is based on W/M. On the Freight Tariff( China-London) , the basic freight rate is USD222, with 10% port surcharges. How much is the total freight?

The MandM Company, a large listed company, has two divisions. The first, the MoneyMint division produces coins and notes for the national exchequer and generates 80% of the company’s revenues. The second, the LunarMint division, manufactures a brand of sweets which are very popular with traders in the financial markets. The company is considering disposing of its LunarMint division. The LunarMint business is no longer viewed as part of the core business of the MandM Company. The Chief Executive Officer commented that he could never understand why the company entered into sweet-making in the first place. The LunarMint business is profitable and low risk, but has not been a high priority for investment.

Required:

Outline the issues that should be considered when disposing of the LunarMint division noting the risks that might be involved.

Passage 2

A tattoo may give parents of children with food allergies some peace of mind when they send their kids off to school. Yes, a tattoo-but it’s a _1_ one. SafetyTat sells colorful stick-on labels and wash-off tattoos that _2_ of a nut allergy or provide other important medical information. Michele Welsh, a mother-of-three, _3_ the company about five years ago. The idea came to her after she wrote her cell phone number on her kids，arms with a pen in case they got _4_ while at an amusement park. She then thought of her nephew, who has a _5_ fatal peanut allergy and how much time her sister-in-law had spent in the emergency room with him. What if she could just have a _6_! Welsh pointed out that caregivers may remember not to give the child a peanut butter cookie, but _7_ they don’t think to look on the packaging of other products. “Sometimes you need something visual to remind others to check the ingredients," she said “And for older kids it’s not as big of a _8_ because they know to check the ingredients themselves, but the little kids are still learning.” However, some have expressed _9_ that the labels would draw unwanted attention from schoolyard bullies. “A lot of kids do get bullied at school about their food allergies, so some parents fear that this might give more ammunition to kids,” Kevin McGrath, a spokesperson for the American College of Allergy. However, he did say that the tattoos “may just be another thing to make parents feel more _10_ when sending their children off to a party or picnic or class trip.

A) separated

B) warn

C) generally

D) negotiated

E) apparently

F) established

G) challenge

H) reminder

I) confident

J) concerns

K) potentially

L) remind

M) temporary

N) incentive

O) radiant

第1空答案是：