Introduction
The purpose of this assessment is to enable students to obtain, analyze, and compare the financial reports and related information of two publicly quoted (listed) companies and express their findings in the form of a report to an identified user of accounting information.

A good financial analysis report requires a proper understanding (and reading) of the financial statements, their elements, the related terminology, working capital management, cost of capital, capital structure, and risk appraisal. The social-ethical investing should also be considered.

Details
Acting as a financial advisor or a potential investor (who is considering the purchase of shares in the company in question. The investor is looking for both income and capital growth and has a modest sum to invest in the company), you are required to select two major non-financial quoted companies from either:

• Singapore Exchange
• Hong Kong Exchange

Both companies should be in the same industry group, of similar size, and should be working in the same market for which you will research, analyze and evaluate their consolidated financial results.

You are required to produce a report evaluating the financial performance and position of these two companies as evidenced by their most recently published annual accounts.

You are advised to spend some time choosing your companies. Make sure you select two, which allow you to satisfy well the requirements of the assignment. Please note that it is not necessary for the companies you
choose to be performing well; your task is to evaluate their performance and position objectively.

Your report should include a comparison of the company’s most recently published annual report with that of the five previous years. Your report should also compare your subject company’s position and performance with that
of one other comparable/competitor company, over the same period.

Please note that exact matching of year-ends is not required; it is acceptable to compare two companies even though one may have a December accounting year-end and the other a March accounting year-end.