Accounting Essays – BT Cashflow Changes

BT Cashflow Changes.BT Group ( BT ) is the taking UK company supplying landline telecommunication services and equipment. It besides had the nomadic telecommunication concern which was later sold as MMO2. After the sale of nomadic concern, BT ‘s profile has now changed from a growing company to a mature hard currency bring forthing company. A )Fiscal public presentationThe most common nonsubjective appraisal of the fiscal public presentation of a house is the return it generates on its assets and the measure and quality of the returns. Measure is measured by the absolute and per centum alteration in entire net incomes. The net income and loss history of an administration and its analysis are the premier and first indexs of a house ‘s fiscal public presentation. The latest one-year consequences of BT is for the period stoping 31 March 2005. Appendix I shows the sum-up of cardinal net income and loss figures over the last three old ages. BT ‘s turnover and net income after revenue enhancement in 2005 have increased as compared to 2004 but are still lower than those in 2003. The turnover has declined by 5.7 % merely whereas net income after revenue enhancement has declined by 32.7 % over the two twelvemonth period. This shows that the concern has really low variable costs which is in line with the heavy fixed cost investings usually made by telecommunication companies in set uping their webs and subsequent really low variable costs in transporting informations. While turnover increased in 2005, runing net incomes have declined. This indicates that the concern is confronting some pricing force per unit areas or is passing more on advertizement as the operating net income declined by 0.5 % merely. BT ‘s 2005 net income after revenue enhancement was & A ; lb ; 1,820m and was well higher than & A ; lb ; 1,406m. Though the absolute net income is really high figure compared to most of the concerns and indicates that the company is in strong fiscal place, it besides shows that BT has high fiscal purchase. The company paid a important high involvement and if grosss and operating borders come under more force per unit area, it could hold problem paying involvement costs. BT is cognizant of this issue and has focused on cut downing its net debt. After confronting tough times in early 2000s, it has sold many old investings to raise money for refunding debt. BT ‘s portion monetary value rose after it announced its strategic determination to cut down net debt by raising money through divestments. The net involvement payments have declined from & A ; lb ; 1,439m in 2003 to & A ; lb ; 801m in 2005. Not merely that, the net involvement payment has declined from 49.5 % of operating net income to 29.0 % from 2003 to 2005. The decrease in net involvement as a per centum of operating net income is an of import betterment as it gives investors comfort that even if operating borders come under force per unit area, the company would still be able to run into its involvement liabilities. One speedy manner to analyze a company ‘s public presentation is to look at the net incomes per portion form. The net incomes per portion had besides a alteration form similar to that of net income after revenue enhancement. It foremost decreased from 31.4p in 2003 to 16.4p in 2004 before increasing to 21.4p in 2005. The 2005 addition in net incomes per portion highlights the betterment in public presentation. Though the net incomes did lessening in 2004, BT kept on increasing entire dividend paid to stockholders. This shows the direction ‘s religion in concern traveling frontward and its ability to run into higher dividend outlooks in future. The returns generated on assets is measured by Return on Capital employed ( ROCE ) . Appendix II shows the computation of ROCE for BT. BT had a healthy ROCE of 19.0 % and 20.7 % in 2004 and 2005. The quality of returns is measured by their consistence and by the spread of net incomes, i.e. , the per centum of net incomes being generated from different divisions and locations. The less trust of net incomes on any one division and/or location means the company is in better form to defy downswings in its markets. None of BT ‘s concern contributed more than 50 % in its turnover in the twelvemonth ended 31 March 2005 ( BT, 2005 ) . This indicates that BT Group is moderately good protected from the diminutions in a concern line. The state of affairs is somewhat different if we look at the operating net incomes where BT Wholesale division contributes more than 50 % of net runing net incomes. Any more border force per unit areas in this concern could cut down future net incomes. Most of BT ‘s net incomes originate from UK and hence it net incomes are susceptible to alterations in UK economic system. Fiscal placeThe fiscal place of a company covers its fiscal construction, its assets and liabilities, its liquidness and hazard direction attack ( Accounting Standards 2004/2005 ) . Appendix III gives the high spots of BT Group ‘s balance sheet from 2004 to 2005. The entire fixed assets have increased by & A ; lb ; 639m in the last twelvemonth. While entire fixed assets have increased, the entire current assets have decreased by & A ; lb ; 254m, so entire assets have increased by & A ; lb ; 385m. The lower addition in entire assets as compared to increase in fixed assets is chiefly due to diminish in hard currency and investings. The major alteration in fiscal construction has occurred on the liabilities side. The entire current liabilities have gone up by & A ; lb ; 3,938m due to increase in current loans and adoptions of & A ; lb ; 3,227m. This shows that BT is financing much more of its assets from current adoptions. The monolithic addition in current loans and adoptions has reversed the net current assets ( liabilities ) place. BT had net current assets of & A ; lb ; 2,027m in 2004 and had net current liabilities of & A ; lb ; 2,165m in 2005, a net lessening in current assets of & A ; lb ; 4,192m. While the current liabilities have increased, the long term creditors have decreased by & A ; lb ; 4,335m. If we merely look at long-run creditors, the decrease is impressive and it gives more assurance to the investors that company is in better fiscal place now. But when we combine the lessening in long term creditors with the addition in current liabilities, the net alteration is really less. And the fact that alterations in current liabilities is chiefly due to borrowing alternatively of addition in trade creditors means that the funding of assets has simply shifted from long term adoptions to short term adoptions. The current assets to current liabilities ratio has declined from 1.24 to 0.83 in the last one twelvemonth, a mark of concern in footings of liquidness particularly when the addition in liabilities is non chiefly due to higher trade creditors. Debt to equity ratio indicates the funding of assets. BT had entire debt of & A ; lb ; 13,697m in 2004 and the corresponding figure for 2005 was & A ; lb ; 12,589m, a lessening of & A ; lb ; 1,108m. If we now exclude hard currency and short term investings from entire debt, BT ‘s net debt was & A ; lb ; 8,425m and & A ; lb ; 7,786m in 2004 and 2005 severally. The net debt to book value of equity ratio declined from 2.75 in 2004 to 2.02 in 2005. This means that debt fundss about twice assets as being financed by equity. Higher sum of debt consequences in lower leaden mean cost of capital as debt is cheaper equity. But as BT reduces more debt, its leaden mean cost of capital will increase. The addition would be partly offset by lower cost of equity due to take down opportunities of bankruptcy. Hazard of bankruptcy is measured by involvement screen ratio which is defined as the ratio of hard currency available for involvement payments to net involvement. Appendix IV shows the EBITDA computation and involvement screen ratio. The involvement screen ratio has increased from 6.1 in 2004 to 7.0 in 2005. The healthy involvement screen ratio shows that BT has farther reduced the hazard of bankruptcy and is in better fiscal place now. The debt degree is now really much within manageable degrees and is more like a hard currency rich mature company. Companies usually tend to follow certain dividend tendency to signal market of their appraisal of future net incomes. Dividend declaration is besides portion of hazard direction as it is based on direction ‘s appraisal of future hard currency coevals and outgo outlooks. The hiking in dividend in 2004 and 2005 inspite of diminution in net incomes in 2004 shows the direction appraisal of future low hazards to hard currency flows. Fiscal AdaptabilityAn entity ‘s fiscal adaptability is its ability to take effectual action to change the sum and timing of its hard currency flows so that it can react to unexpected demands or chances ( Accounting Standards 2004/2005, page 26 ) . Appendix V shows the chief elements of amalgamate hard currency flow statement of BT Group. BT Group is bring forthing high sums of hard currency influx from operating activities. During the twelvemonth ended 31 March 2005, the company generated & A ; lb ; 5,900m of net hard currency from operating activities. BT is in telecommunication concern which demands comparatively high degree of absolute investings. It spent & A ; lb ; 2,408m on capital outgo during the twelvemonth ended 31 March 2005. Even if we believe that all of capital outgo was required under normal operations, BT was still left with & A ; lb ; 2,282m of excess hard currency in 2005. As we can see from the Appendix III that BT has now focused on refund of loans. During the last three old ages, the company has reduced adoptions by & A ; lb ; 7,395m. Though BT is able to bring forth important sum of hard currency before disposals but that was non plenty in 2003 and 2004 to refund loans. The company so sold some of its investings to bring forth hard currency for loan refunds. BT besides pays a important sum of dividend to its stockholders. So if its cyberspace hard currency from operations do diminish in future, it has still some buffer in footings of dividend payments to take attention of loan refunds. B )The aim of fiscal statement is to supply information about the coverage entity ‘s fiscal public presentation and fiscal place that is utile to a broad scope of users for measuring the stewardship of the entity ‘s direction and for doing economic determinations ( Accounting Standards, 2004, page 22 ) . The conformity of an entity ‘s fiscal studies with UK ‘s Accounting Standards can be gauged over two chief countries – content and format. Content is of import to give true and right image of a house ‘s fiscal public presentation and place. Different users need different information. Fiscal statements are used by investors to establish their investing determination. So it is of import that fiscal statements have the right content to assist accomplish this end. It is besides of import to hold right format of presentation. Investors are more likely to experience comfy if they see familiar presentation manner and can so measure the company easy. We will look at the content and major fiscal statements to see whether they comply with UK Accounting Standards. We will so besides at few extra notes to fiscal statements to see whether they are besides in line with true and just rule and give the readers a clear image of the entity. First of all we compare net income and loss statement with FRS 3 ‘Reporting fiscal public presentation ‘ . BT ‘s amalgamate net income and loss statement clearly shows the entire turnover and portion from joint venture and associates, and in making so gives more lucidity of its gaining base. The fiscal statement format is similar to the illustration formats shown in Accounting Standards 2004/2005. BT ‘s 2005 Annual Report nevertheless does n't demo portion of turnover and net incomes from discounted operations ( BT, 2005 ) . It is because BT did n't sell any concern in 2005. If we look at the 2002 Annual Report ( BT, 2002 ) , it shows the turnover and net incomes from discounted operations besides. The fiscal statement besides has statement of entire recognized additions and losingss in line with FRS 3 patterns. So the histories run into net income and loss statement UK Accounting Standards in footings of both content and format. We now compare BT ‘s hard currency flow statement with the format prescribed in FRS 1 ‘Cash flow statements ‘ . BT ‘s hard currency flow statement has non merely got all the headers but they are besides in the same order as mentioned in FRS 1. BT study besides gives sub-categories under the major headers and hence is a echt attempt to educate investors every bit much as possible on the coevals and usage of hard currency flows. BT hard currency flow statement uses the format prescribed for the ‘Group ‘ histories. The notes to fiscal statement besides has detailed describing on rapprochement of operating net income to run hard currency flows, analysis of net debt, acquisition and disposals in line with formats for the ‘Group ‘ histories. The following subdivision we analyse is on segmental coverage and look into its comparison with SSAP 25 ‘Segmental Reporting ‘ . SSAP 25 says that a populace limited company should supply segmental analysis on lines of concern category and geographical location. The notes to fiscal statement subdivision in the 2005 Annual Report has a subdivision on segmental coverage wherein BT shows the turnover, runing profit/ ( loss ) and net assets/ ( liabilities ) of different concern lines. It besides provides the above informations based on the geographical location of contrary coevals. The above meets SSAP 25 demands and besides helps investors make a better judgement of hazards faced by BT. BT is in telecommunication concern where engineering alteration is rapid. BT has acquired many companies in recent old ages to maintain gait with the technological developments. So it is of import to analyze the acquisition policies and revelations are in line with the UK Accounting Standards. FRS 6 ‘Acquisitions and Mergers ‘ and FRS 7 ‘Fair values in acquisition accounting ‘ govern the acquisition accounting policies. BT ‘s one-year study under ‘Notes to fiscal statements ‘ gives elaborate revelation of entire and just value of the acquisitions made by it. BT ‘s fiscal statements non merely give the book and just value of acquisitions but besides a elaborate account of them for each acquisition. The clear and easy to understand format of fiscal statements and the deepness of information in them signals that BT non merely merely make the lower limit to run into UK Accounting Standards but besides follows them in true spirit. Appendix I – Highlight of BT Group ‘s net income and loss histories ( Beginning: BT Annual Report and Form 20-F ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Howwehavedone/Financialreports/Annualreports/AnnualReports.htm ) Appendix II – ROCE of BT Group ( Beginning: BT Annual Report and Form 20-F ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Howwehavedone/Financialreports/Annualreports/AnnualReports.htm ) Appendix III – Highlight of BT Group ‘s balance sheet ( Beginning: BT Annual Report and Form 20-F ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Howwehavedone/Financialreports/Annualreports/AnnualReports.htm ) Appendix IV – Interest screen ratio ( Beginning: BT Annual Report and Form 20-F ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Howwehavedone/Financialreports/Annualreports/AnnualReports.htm ) Appendix V – Highlight of BT Group ‘s hard currency flow statements ( Beginning: BT Annual Report and Form 20-F ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Howwehavedone/Financialreports/Annualreports/AnnualReports.htm ) Bibliography and mentions Accounting Standards 2004/2005 – Extant at 30 April 2004 ( 2004 ) ; Wolters Kluwer ( UK ) Limited. BT ( 2005 ) ; BT Annual Report and Form 20-F for the twelvemonth ended 31 March 2005 ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Howwehavedone/ Financialreports/Annualreports/AnnualReports.htm BT ( 2002 ) ; BT Annual Report and Form 20-F for the twelvemonth ended 31 March 2002 ;hypertext transfer protocol: //www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Howwehavedone/Financialreports/Annualreports/Annualreportsarchive.htm