Reference no: EM133177940

Strategic Investment Appraisal

Instructions for assessment
The assessment is an individualproject appraisal report. The project is a business takeover or merger to be investigated in detail.The report should be 3,000 words plus appendices containing slides, spread sheet analysis and learning logs.

Assignment scenario:
The case study is a takeover bid by Caesarsof William Hill for £2.9 billion -You may make use of newspaper sources (Caesars agrees £2.9bn William Hill takeover - but will sell off UK betting shops | Business News | Sky News),company websites, bid document and stock market data, but the annual reports for 2019 &2020 should be the main source of financial data.

There are three elements in the interim assessment (task 1) you should upload to the Moodle blog as your formative assessment for feedback before you submit (an improved version if applicable) as part of your summative report.

1) Present ONEslide for each: (3 power-point slides appended to your report)
a. strategic/market(competitor) analysis (rationale for takeover)
b. analysis of the business, financial and specific takeover risks
c. preliminary financial analysis, stating the assumptions required to value the target companyusing DCF analysis (revenue growth, profit margin, cost of capital etc.)

2) A business valuation, based onrecentfinancial performance, calculate the equity value of William Hill tojustify the bid price offered by Caesars. Explain your methods and justify your assumptions for forecast performance under new ownership. You should append 2 screenshotsfrom aspreadsheet model (results & formulae) to your report

3) Comparison.Identify another recent business takeover of your choice(from any sector).Outline the case and explainwhy there may have been different issues in that case and hence differentassumptions made in their business valuation

4) Write acritiqueof business valuation methods and relevant research, explaining why any anticipated bidder gains may not come to fruition, especially given the economic crisis due to Covid-19. Refer to relevant research and cite journal articles to support your discussion

5) A learning (b)log(using the template provided) to reflect on what you have learnt from each session (at least 8), including reference to Moodle materials, showing how you have applied this learning to the assessment task, to be appended to your report

6) A supporting bibliography and professional style of report (presentation)

A business case should be made to justify the takeover bid. Yourreport should contain:
Structure and presentation

The individual report should be 3000 words plus references and appendices. The report must be a word document, but you are expected to use a spreadsheet for the financial analysis. You should submit screenshots of your spreadsheet results view and formulae view in an appendix.

Any written work should be spell-checked and a contents page should be included. Do not use various font sizes and colours Black ink, Arial, size 11, 1.5 lines spaced is recommended. Use DIN A4 format and page margins of 2.5 cm or 1 inch.