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Instructions:
Exam is an open book exam. You may carry only prescribed text book “Accounting Text
and Cases” by Anthony, Hawkins & Merchant in examination hall. No other material
including reading material provided by the institute is allowed in examination hall.
Neat and systematic presentation is expected.
Please interpret all the quantitative results obtained through your analysis. Equal weightage
will be given to correctness of calculation and qualitative interpretation of results.
Use of laptop and mobile phone is prohibited during exam. Although you may use simple
calculator for calculations.
Please state your assumptions and adjustments clearly before calculating the ratios.
Answer all questions
Cement is a capex heavy business. An investment of around Rs 3500 is required for each ton of installed
capacity. The operating asset turnover ratios of a cement plant is close to 1.00. A better effective use of
assets and maximum utilisation of installed capacity is therefore critical for the profitability of the cement
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company. However, in past cement companies in India have made a huge investment of their capacity and
now due to sluggish demand from housing and infrastructure sector, it is facing the problem of excess
capacity and high burden of fixed costs.
Over last five years the cement industry is passing through a process of consolidation and turnaround. The
biggest international player in the industry LafargeHolcim (emerged after merger of Lafarge and Holcim)
have invested in in ACC and Ambuja Cement; making this the second largest group of cement producers
in India with joint installed capacity of around 70 million tons per annum. Aditya Birla Group Company,
Ultratech Cement is the biggest player in the country with installed capacity of more than 90 million tons
per annum. Ultatech has also acquired recently cement plats of Jaiprakash Associates.
Ultratech Cement:
Ultratech Cement is the leader of the industry in true sense. It has not only Pan-India presence but Its
operations span across India, UAE, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. UltraTech Cement is also India's
largest exporter of cement reaching out to meet the demand in countries around the Indian Ocean and the
Middle East. On consolidated basis, Ultratech and its subsidiaries are getting 7.5% of their revenue from
export. UltraTech Cement provides a range of products that cater to the various aspects of construction;
which include ordinary portland cement, white cement, ready mix concrete and Aerated Autoclaved
Concrete (AAC) blocks.
Being the market leader, Ultratech Cement can be used as a bench mark to evaluate the performance of
Ramco Cement Ltd. The recent Balance Sheet (as on March 31, 2017); and Income Statement for
Financial Year 2016-17 is given in the annexure.
Required:
1. Calculate return on equity, return on total (operating) assets and return on capital employed
for Ramco Cement Ltd. Compare the profitability of Ramco Cement with Ultra Tech
Cement. (6 x 2 = 12)
2. Compare the revenue realisation per ton, EBITDA Margins, EBITDA realised per ton and
operating profit margins for Ramco Cement and Ultra Tech Cement. What is the role of cost
efficiency and product differentiation in explaining the profitability of these two companies?
(8 x 2 = 16+4 = 20)
3. Cement Industry is a capital intensive industry; therefore, the success of a cement industry depends
on how effectively it uses its assets to generate revenue. Evaluate the two companies on this
parameter. (5+5)
4. Evaluate cash conversion cycle and its different components for both the companies. (8)
5. Using DuPont framework analyse the differences and similarities in the factors explaining the
profitability of Ramco cement with Ultra Tech Cement. (6 x2 = 12+8 =20)
6. Suppose you are a financial institution. Both of these cement companies approach you for private
placement of their non-convertible bonds. How will you evaluate them? (10)
7. You are an equity researcher in big mutual fund asset management company (AMC). How will
you evaluate these two cement companies from long term equity investment point of view, given
industry P/E ratio and P/B ratio are 45.25 and 4.6, respectively?
(20)
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Annexure
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BALANCE SHEET AS ON 31ST DECEMBER 2017
ULTRA TECH RAMCO
PARTICULARS CEMENT CEMENT
ASSETS: (RS. CRORE) (RS. CRORE)
NON CURRENT ASSETS:
PROPERTY PLANT AND EQUIPMENT 22898 4877
INVESTMENT PROPERTY 0 241
CAPITAL WORK IN PROGRESS 878 97
INTANGIBLE ASSETS 334 65
INTANGIBLE ASSETS UNDER DEVELOPMENT 1 23
FINANCIAL INVESTMENT 2132 204
OTHER NON-CURRENT INVESTMENTS 564 83
TOTAL NON-CURRENT ASSETS (A) 26807 5590
CURRENT ASSETS:
INVENTORIES 2225 575
INVESTMENTS 5406 0
TRADE RECEIVABLES 1276 555
CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS 51 82
BANK BALANCE 2167 36
LOAN AND ADVANCES 124 27
OTHER FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS 285 32
OTHER CURRENT ASSETS 941 112
TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS (B) 12475 1419
TOTAL ASSETS (A+B) 39282 7009