Overview
The assessment is an individual assignment worth 40% of the total mark. Each student will choose an industry or sector from the list available on the LMS. You are required to collect relevant information about your chosen industry or sector from credible sources such as DatAnalysis, the IBISWorld database, and prepare a report. Additional information may also be collected from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) website or through multilateral institutions like the IMF and World Bank. You will be provided with industry classifications, from which you can select one. Ensure that you have data on at least 10 companies for industry comparison.
Submission Details
Two files:
Industry report file (Word format)
Calculations data file (Excel format).
Introduction [7 MARKS]
Describe the profile of your industry, including the nature of the business, its sector, and its position within the Australian market.
Analyse the macroeconomic factors that have the greatest influence on the Australian economy and its population, focusing on aspects such as unemployment rates, economic growth, and inflation. It is crucial to explain how these factors specifically affect your industry, including any opportunities or challenges they may present.
Identify the key players within your industry and assess their market share. Market share can be determined by dividing a companys total revenue by the industrys total revenue during the same time frame. To provide a more accurate analysis, consider calculating the average market share over the last five years.
You may refer to the recording provided on the LMS for more information (Identifying the main players of an industry and their market shares – Video).
Strategy analysis [12 marks]
You are required to conduct a strategy analysis for your industry, which includes:
Industrys key success factors, risks, and
Analysing the competitive forces within an industry using the five forces
SWOT Analysis (i.e., Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
Financial Analysis [12 marks]
This section is for estimating the industry average of selected ratios, which will be then used as benchmarks in your group assignment. To complete this section, ensure that you have data on at least 10 companies for industry comparison. For the chosen companies, estimate the industry average (or median) for the selected ratios over five years (20192023). To estimate the industry average (or median), collect the following ratios from DatAnalysis database (see appendix A for more information):
Profitability analysis: calculate the industry average of ROE and ROA for 5 years and take the average of the five years.
Operating management evaluation: calculate the industry average of EBIT margin and EBITDA margin
for 5 years and take the average of the five years.
Investment management evaluation: calculate the industry average of Assets turnover and Working capital to sales for 5 years and take the average of the five years.
Financial management evaluation: calculate the industry average of Financial leverage (total assets to shareholders equity) and Net interest cover ratio for 5 years and take the average of the five years.
You are also required to provide a brief explanation of your findings in this section.
Prospective analysis [7 marks]
Answer both questions in relation to your chosen industry:
How is Artificial Intelligence expected to reshape traditional business models of your chosen industry, and what are the potential long-term effects it could have on its future?
How are the Australian government regulations, such as the Net Zero Plan shaping the future of your chosen industry, and what impact do these regulations have on industry growth?
Conclusion [1 mark]
Briefly summarise your findings and your overall view of the industrys current performance.
Presentation and references [1 mark]
The report must be professionally presented using Times New Roman, 12-point font, with the main text double- spaced and tables, figures, and appendices single-spaced. Figures and graphs should be clearly labelled and numbered. Any information obtained from external sources must be referenced according to APA style. The word limit is a maximum of 1,500 words per student, with a tolerance of +10%, excluding appendices and tables.
Appendix A Additional Guidance
Financial Analysis
To estimate the industry average, collect the following ratios from DatAnalysis database for estimating the required
Head to DatAnalysis Premium Database and then select to Time Series Financial Search under Search Tool section.
Specify your search, such as years range, industry classification, select the required ratios from box 1 and box 2 and add these ratios one by one into the query list by clicking Add Query. Specifically, choose ROA, ROE, EBIT Margin and the rest of ratios required from the drop list.
Now, you should be able to download the data of your industry from Annual RatioAnalysis list to excel file.
Clean the excel file and start estimating the industry average of each ratio as per the guidance provided on the LMS (i.e., Calculating Industry Average – Guidance).
Finally, you should have the industry average for each ratio per year and importantly the average of the five years of each required ratio