A.medium of exchange;store of value
B.medium of exchange;unit of account
C.store of value;medium of exchange
D.store of value;unit of account
Which of the following statements is true?
A.The target cost will decrease and the cost gap will increase
B.The target cost will increase and the cost gap will decrease
C.The target cost will remain the same and the cost gap will increase
D.The target cost will remain the same and the cost gap will decrease
Section A – BOTH questions are compulsory and MUST be attempted
Tramont Co is a listed company based in the USA and manufactures electronic devices. One of its devices, the X-IT, is produced exclusively for the American market. Tramont Co is considering ceasing the production of the X-IT gradually over a period of four years because it needs the manufacturing facilities used to make the X-IT for other products.
The government of Gamala, a country based in south-east Asia, is keen to develop its manufacturing industry and has offered Tramont Co first rights to produce the X-IT in Gamala and sell it to the USA market for a period of four years. At the end of the four-year period, the full production rights will be sold to a government-backed company for Gamalan Rupiahs (GR) 450 million after tax (this amount is not subject to inflationary increases). Tramont Co has to decide whether to continue production of the X-IT in the USA for the next four years or to move the production to Gamala immediately.
Currently each X-IT unit sold makes a unit contribution of $20. This unit contribution is not expected to be subject to any inflationary increase in the next four years. Next year’s production and sales estimated at 40,000 units will fall by 20% each year for the following three years. It is anticipated that after four years the production of the X-IT will stop. It is expected that the financial impact of the gradual closure over the four years will be cost neutral (the revenue from sale of assets will equal the closure costs). If production is stopped immediately, the excess assets would be sold for $2·3 million and the costs of closure, including redundancy costs of excess labour, would be $1·7 million.
The following information relates to the production of the X-IT moving to Gamala. The Gamalan project will require an initial investment of GR 230 million, to pay for the cost of land and buildings (GR 150 million) and machinery (GR 80 million). The cost of machinery is tax allowable and will be depreciated on a straight-line basis over the next four years, at the end of which it will have a negligible value.
Tramont Co will also need GR 40 million for working capital immediately. It is expected that the working capital requirement will increase in line with the annual inflation rate in Gamala. When the project is sold, the working capital will not form. part of the sale price and will be released back to Tramont Co.
Production and sales of the device are expected to be 12,000 units in the first year, rising to 22,000 units, 47,000 units and 60,000 units in the next three years respectively.
The following revenues and costs apply to the first year of operation: – Each unit will be sold for $70;
– The variable cost per unit comprising of locally sourced materials and labour will be GR 1,350, and;
– In addition to the variable cost above, each unit will require a component bought from Tramont Co for $7, on which Tramont Co makes $4 contribution per unit;
– Total fixed costs for the first year will be GR 30 million.
The costs are expected to increase by their countries’ respective rates of inflation, but the selling price will remain fixed at $70 per unit for the four-year period.
The annual corporation tax rate in Gamala is 20% and Tramont Co currently pays corporation tax at a rate of 30% per year. Both countries’ corporation taxes are payable in the year that the tax liability arises. A bi-lateral tax treaty exists between the USA and Gamala, which permits offset of overseas tax against any USA tax liability on overseas earnings. The USA and Gamalan tax authorities allow losses to be carried forward and written off against future profits for taxation purposes.
Tramont Co has decided to finance the project by borrowing the funds required in Gamala. The commercial borrowing rate is 13% but the Gamalan government has offered Tramont Co a 6% subsidised loan for the entire amount of the initial funds required. The Gamalan government has agreed that it will not ask for the loan to be repaid as long as Tramont Co fulfils its contract to undertake the project for the four years. Tramont Co can borrow dollar funds at an interest rate of 5%.
Tramont Co’s financing consists of 25 million shares currently trading at $2·40 each and $40 million 7% bonds trading at $1,428 per $1,000. Tramont Co’s quoted beta is 1·17. The current risk free rate of return is estimated at 3% and the market risk premium is 6%. Due to the nature of the project, it is estimated that the beta applicable to the project if it is all-equity financed will be 0·4 more than the current all-equity financed beta of Tramont Co. If the Gamalan project is undertaken, the cost of capital applicable to the cash flows in the USA is expected to be 7%.
The spot exchange rate between the dollar and the Gamalan Rupiah is GR 55 per $1. The annual inflation rates are currently 3% in the USA and 9% in Gamala. It can be assumed that these inflation rates will not change for the foreseeable future. All net cash flows arising from the project will be remitted back to Tramont Co at the end of each year.
There are two main political parties in Gamala: the Gamala Liberal (GL) Party and the Gamala Republican (GR) Party. Gamala is currently governed by the GL Party but general elections are due to be held soon. If the GR Party wins the election, it promises to increase taxes of international companies operating in Gamala and review any commercial benefits given to these businesses by the previous government.
Required:
Prepare a report for the Board of Directors of Tramont Co that
(i) Evaluates whether or not Tramont Co should undertake the project to produce the X-IT in Gamala and cease its production in the USA immediately. In the evaluation, include all relevant calculations in the form. of a financial assessment and explain any assumptions made;
Note: it is suggested that the financial assessment should be based on present value of the operating cash flows from the Gamalan project, discounted by an appropriate all-equity rate, and adjusted by the present value of all other relevant cash flows. (27 marks)
(ii) Discusses the potential change in government and other business factors that Tramont Co should consider before making a final decision. (8 marks)
Professional marks will be awarded in question 1 for the format, structure and presentation of the answer. (4 marks)
Chair Co plans on pricing the seat by adding a 50% mark-up to the total variable cost per seat, with the labour cost being based on the incremental time taken to produce the 8th unit.
Required:
(a) Calculate the price which Chair Co expects to charge for the new seat. Note: The learning index for a 75% learning curve is –0·415. (5 marks)
(b) The first phase of production has now been completed for the new car seat. The first unit actually took 12·5 hours to make and the total time for the first eight units was 34·3 hours, at which point the learning effect came to an end. Chair Co are planning on adjusting the price to reflect the actual time it took to complete the 8th unit.
Required:
(i) Calculate the actual rate of learning and state whether this means that the labour force actually learnt more quickly or less quickly than expected. (3 marks)
(ii) Briefly explain whether the adjusted price charged by Chair Co will be higher or lower than the price you calculated in part (a) above. You are NOT required to calculate the adjusted price. (2 marks)
1 The scientists in the research laboratories of Swan Hill Company (SHC, a public listed company) recently made a very
important discovery about the process that manufactured its major product. The scientific director, Dr Sonja Rainbow,
informed the board that the breakthrough was called the ‘sink method’. She explained that the sink method would
enable SHC to produce its major product at a lower unit cost and in much higher volumes than the current process.
It would also produce lower unit environmental emissions and would substantially improve product quality compared
to its current process and indeed compared to all of the other competitors in the industry.
SHC currently has 30% of the global market with its nearest competitor having 25% and the other twelve producers
sharing the remainder. The company, based in the town of Swan Hill, has a paternalistic management approach and
has always valued its relationship with the local community. Its website says that SHC has always sought to maximise
the benefit to the workforce and community in all of its business decisions and feels a great sense of loyalty to the
Swan Hill locality which is where it started in 1900 and has been based ever since.
As the board considered the implications of the discovery of the sink method, chief executive Nelson Cobar asked
whether Sonja Rainbow was certain that SHC was the only company in the industry that had made the discovery and
she said that she was. She also said that she was certain that the competitors were ‘some years’ behind SHC in their
research.
It quickly became clear that the discovery of the sink method was so important and far reaching that it had the
potential to give SHC an unassailable competitive advantage in its industry. Chief executive Nelson Cobar told board
colleagues that they should clearly understand that the discovery had the potential to put all of SHC’s competitors out
of business and make SHC the single global supplier. He said that as the board considered the options, members
should bear in mind the seriousness of the implications upon the rest of the industry.
Mr Cobar said there were two strategic options. Option one was to press ahead with the huge investment of new plant
necessary to introduce the sink method into the factory whilst, as far as possible, keeping the nature of the sink
technology secret from competitors (the ‘secrecy option’). A patent disclosing the nature of the technology would not
be filed so as to keep the technology secret within SHC. Option two was to file a patent and then offer the use of the
discovery to competitors under a licensing arrangement where SHC would receive substantial royalties for the twentyyear
legal lifetime of the patent (the ‘licensing option’). This would also involve new investment but at a slower pace
in line with competitors. The licence contract would, Mr Cobar explained, include an ‘improvement sharing’
requirement where licensees would be required to inform. SHC of any improvements discovered that made the sink
method more efficient or effective.
The sales director, Edwin Kiama, argued strongly in favour of the secrecy option. He said that the board owed it to
SHC’s shareholders to take the option that would maximise shareholder value. He argued that business strategy was
all about gaining competitive advantage and this was a chance to do exactly that. Accordingly, he argued, the sink
method should not be licensed to competitors and should be pursued as fast as possible. The operations director said
that to gain the full benefits of the sink method with either option would require a complete refitting of the factory and
the largest capital investment that SHC had ever undertaken.
The financial director, Sean Nyngan, advised the board that pressing ahead with investment under the secrecy option
was not without risks. First, he said, he would have to finance the investment, probably initially through debt, and
second, there were risks associated with any large investment. He also informed the board that the licensing option
would, over many years, involve the inflow of ‘massive’ funds in royalty payments from competitors using the SHC’s
patented sink method. By pursuing the licensing option, Sean Nyngan said that they could retain their market
leadership in the short term without incurring risk, whilst increasing their industry dominance in the future through
careful investment of the royalty payments.
The non-executive chairman, Alison Manilla, said that she was looking at the issue from an ethical perspective. She
asked whether SHC had the right, even if it had the ability, to put competitors out of business.
Required:
(a) Assess the secrecy option using Tucker’s model for decision-making. (10 marks)
(b) (i) Advise Alasdair of the tax implications and relative financial risks attached to the following property
investments:
(1) buy to let residential property;
(2) commercial property; and
(3) shares in a property investment company/unit trust. (9 marks)
Part BDirections:
In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into the numbered blank when there are tow extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
After its misadventures in 1993, when American marines were driven out of Somalia by skinny gunmen, America has used a long spoon in supping with Somalia's warlords. This, like so much else, changed on September 11th. (41) .
Clandestine, up to a point: within hours of the arrival in Baidoa of nine closely cropped Americans sporting matching satellite phones and shades, their activities were broadcast. After meeting various warlords, the group inspected a compound that had apparently been offered to them as their future base. They also saw an old military depot. Neither can have been encouraging: the compound has been taken over by war-displaced families, and the depot by thorn-scrub.
America was already convinced of al-Qaeda's presence in Somalia. Its had listed a Somali Islamic group, al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (Islamic Unity), as a terrorist organisation. (42) . It fears that lawless Somalia could become a haven for escapes from Afghanistan. The American navy is currently patrolling the country's long coastline, while spy planes are said to be criss-crossing the heavens.
(43) . With a little bit of help, he told his American visitors, he would be ready "to liberate the country from these evil forces". America had already heard as much through its embassies in Nairobi and Addis Ababa, which maintain contact with warlords, and from Ethiopia.
The warlords are supported by Ethiopia, which has a historical fear of strong Somalia, in a bid to oppose the government. But their differing views on where to strike at the "terrorists" reveal that their individual ambitions are even sharper than their dislike of the government.
Mr. Ismail says that Merca, which is claimed by his Rahanwein clan, is the capital of terror. (44) . The UN says there is only an orphanage there now. But the island is close to Mr. Morgan's home town of Kismaayo, which he failed to capture from a pro-government militia in July, and he is determined not to fail again.
None of this looks good for Somalia's official president, Abdiquassim Salad Hassan, Whose government is in control of about half the capital, Mogadishu. He has formed his own anti-terrorism unit, and invited America to send investigators, or even troops. America, armed with stories about the presence of al-Itihaad members held back, but on December 18th sent an envoy to Mogadishu.
Both Mr. Hassan and the UN say that al-Itihaad is not a terrorist organisation. It emerged as an armed force in 1991, battling for power in the aftermath of Siad Barre's fall. It had some early successes, briefly taking Kismaayo. But it was always dependent on the blessing of its members' clan elders. When the elders eventually called their fighters back, a hard core of Islamists fled to the Gedo border region where, in 1997, they were crushed by Ethiopian troops (45) .
The Baidoa alliance plainly hopes to be supported as proxies in a fight against "terrorism" and the Mogadishu regime. But the latest intelligence leaks suggest that the first reports may have overestimated al-Qaeda's presence in Somalia. Nor would Mr. bin Laden and his henchmen find it easy to lie low in an oral culture that considers rumour-mongering to be a form. of manners. Even so, the warlords seem to believe that they have won some promise of help. Soon after the arrival of the American group, they pulled out of the peace talks they had been holding with their government in Nairobi.
[A] Al-Itihaad subsequently infiltrated Somalia's business class, and now runs Islamic schools, courts and clinics with the money it has accumulated.
[B] According to Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail, the acting chairman of the loose alliance of warlords who control most of Somalia and are based in Baidoa, there are "approximately 20,480 armed extremists" in Somalia and "85% of the government is al-Itihaad".
[C] Muhammad Hersi Morgan, known as the "butcher of Hargeisa" because he once razed that town to the ground, says an al-Itihaad camp on Ras Kamboni island, is still active.
[D] But since September 11th 2001, western governments anxious to prevent al-Qaeda from using Somalia as a base, have pressed the warlords to make peace.
[E] American intelligence officers are working with two warlords to gather information about suspected al-Qaeda people in Somalia.
[F] On December 9th America sent a clandestine mission to talk to a collection of Somali warlords, who like to claim that their country, in particular their UN-sponsored government, is overrun with terrorists.
[G] It had also forced the closure of Barakaat, Somalia's biggest banking and telecoms company, which handles most of the remittances that somalis working abroad send back to their families.
第41题:
(41) .
Passage 2 Questions 1to 5 are based on the following passage:
Sometimes a book can help change history. One book that certainly did was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was a book that spoke out against slavery.
As Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her book, there were over3.5 million slaves in the United States. Slaves were usually in the cotton-growing states of the South. The Northern States has ended slavery. Yet most northerners were not strongly against slavery. They did not mind that slavery continued in the South.
Stowe decided to make people understand that slavery was very bad. Each night after putting r six children to bed, she worked on her book. She told the owner. She also told how the slaves tried to run away for freedom. Uncle Tom’s Cabin first came in 1852. Over 300,000 books were sold out in a year.
People had different ideas about the book. In the North, many people finally believed that slavery must be ended after they read the book. In the South, many people were very angry at the people in the North. By 1861 the two parts of the country were at war. The Civil War, which lasted until of cease, was made to happen by many things. Yet Uncle Tom’s Cabin surely played a part. Stowe met President Linclon in 1862. As Linclon took her hand, he said, “So you are the woman who starred the big war.”
1、Before Uncle Tom’s Cabin came out, most Northerners ______.
A、were slaves in the South
B、did not know how bad slavery was
C、kept slaves in their homes
D、understood that slavery was wrong
2、While many Northerners agreed with Harriet Beacher Stowe,______.
A、many southerners wanted war
B、many southerners had not read the boo
C、many southerners were angry at her
D、some slaves tried to run away from North
3、From the text, we can infer that _______.
A、Stowe was a very young woman
B、Stowe’s husband was dead when she wrote the story
C、Stowe wrote her book with stories from her six children
D、Stowe could not work on her book at all during the daytime
4、Uncle Tom’s Cabin was _______.
A、a book about Harriet Beecher Stowe
B、a history book
C、a book that helped change history
D、a book about the American Civil war
5、Harriet Beecher Stowe _______.
A、was a little woman who started the American Civil War together with Abraham Linclon
B、was strongly against the slavery
C、helped some slaves to run away from the South
D、met Abraham Lincoln before the Civil War
Write a note based on the given facts
留言者:小王
时间:10月 12日
对象:李教授
内容;我校将于 11月5日为全校教师举办- - 场教学研讨会,拟邀请您做-场关于“如何提高教学效率”的讲座,请问届时您能否拨冗参加?期待您的回信!