International Business Financial Analysis of Purple Phone Group

Questions: 1. Evaluate the proposed joint venture using financial and non-financial analysis. Clearly state which capital investment appraisal method you have used and it appropriateness. Clearly state any assumptions and show all workings and calculations in the appendices of your report. 2. Advise PURPLEPHONE Group SMT on the key operational and strategic challenges that they face when considering re-domiciling the France parent company to Monaco.3. Clearly state what options of sources of finance the multinational corporation has to fund the proposed expansion across Asia. What factors should the company consider when deciding what sources of finance to access to find the restructuring of the company? Answer: Introduction: PurplePhone Group Company is currently operating in France. The company provides finance services to private equity companies in the property construction and development industry. The company is now looking for business expansion. There are two strategic options of the company: Joint Venture and Restructuring. The company has taken option of EMF AG, who has offered two millions euro in a fifty-fifty joint venture for the period of two years. Another option is restructuring by making a shift from France to Monaco. In this assignment, factors will be evaluated to examine which strategic option is better for the companys future growth. In the first part, the joint venture option will be evaluated using all financial and non-financial factors of the given case study. The relevant assumption will be taken for consideration for analysing the capital investment appraisal. During the expansion plan the company may be faced many operational and strategic challenges. In the second part of the assignment all such challenges will be evaluated and analysed for decision-making. The discussion of the third part is all about how to corporation has to fund the proposed expansion plan in Asia. There are many factors need to be undertaken for choosing the best sources of fund for the company. This assignment also evaluated those factors, which are required for restructuring of company and transfer the parent company from France to Monaco. 1. The joint venture of the company in Germany might be possible as observed in the financial evidences have showed in the following table. The net present value method had been used in evaluating the project financing of the joint venture. Therefore, the main advantage of using the method in evaluating the investment proposal is to make the assessment in present valuation. The future value of the return from the investment might be scaled in present value so that the management of the firms can understand the positive reflection in future comparing with the present investment value. According to Brealey et al (2012), present value of the investment appraisal of the projects, the method of assessment considered in present value method might show the relative measurement of the different sources of evaluation in different financial situation of the firms. In the meantime, the major change might be observed in the capital budgeting of the project. However, the invested sum in a project and the benefit from the same might be assessed as positive using the NPV method. Coles, Lemmon and Meschke (2012) saw that managers must conduct different method of appraisal before implementing the project in practice. He also found that NPV method was not correct always as it cannot provide the managers insights of internal rate of return from the cash flow made in the internal years. Therefore, the IRR method provides the managers more comprehensive and precise measurement of the investment appraisal in assessing the investment decision. However, the company may face difficulties because IRR does not take the time value for their calculation and not considered the anticipated cash flows at the time of investment. But the company used IRR with NPV which has taken both the considerations for the calculation. Therefore, user will get fruitful results at the end of the financial year. NPV and IRR, both are presently used in investment appraisal of the future expansion so that the m anagers may make better decision regarding the investment. These two are the tools for the managers to control the cost as well as return associated with the projects during the assessing periods (Roberts and Whited 2012). The analysis from the tables in the appendix showed that Purple Phone Group may make no loss from its joint venture in Germany after four years. Further, the analysis was drawn in to consideration here by using the NPV and IRR method. The analysis was considered by evaluating the investment decision using both the methods as the loopholes in one method could be predicted in another one. The major change happened in measuring the NPV and IRR of the investment decision. Thereby, the assessment of the profit after tax from the return of the project was considered as the inflow from the project. Thereby, the outcome was measured in GBP and Euro in two different calculations. However, the project has undergone a periodic inflation rate in the economy. During the period of four years of the joint venture, the management had evaluated the outcome of the project. However, the cash flow from the project was considered excluding the depreciation of the year while measuring the operating margin . The measurement of the project investment was being conducted through converting the return in to GBP as it was also a part of the European revenue operation of Purple Phone Group. The positive NPV was obtained while considering the European interest rate as the required rate of return. However, the percentage of the UK was 2.5%, which predicted a negative value of the investment after the four years of JV in Germany. However, the current structure of the German subsidiary shows that the weighted average cost of capital may be 10%. This rate might be used in assessing the project as required rate of return of the investment. In this assessment way, the investment proposal was positive for the company to go with the Joint venture in Germany for the next four years. The IRR evaluation of the investment to the project might be observed as 25%. The rate shows a success for the decision of going with the JV for Purple Phone group with EMF AG. However, the nonfinancial assessment of the decision of going with JV in Germany was different. The main reason could be found in evaluating the business environment. The major difference could be observed in the different culture in Germany compare to France or the UK (Flannery and Hankins 2013). Therefore, the management of the company has to deal with the different mentality as well as the regulation in the country while doing the business. Ehrhardt and Brigham (2016) saw that incorporating new business in new region might be difficult for the companies as they could find the obstacles in developing the business in different countries. Further, the difference in managements preview of the business environment might become a constraint for Purple to develop its business in Germany. Thereby, the idea of joint venture with EMF AG might provide the company a chance of developing its business in Germany successfully. The employees of Purple might enhance its knowledge from the skills o f the EMFs employees. Furthermore, the advantages of transformation economic integration, EU memberships continuously provide financial stability and encourage new businesses. The country is having large home countrys market size and high growth prospects due to having huge demand offering scopes for providing financial services to private equity companies in the industrial and commercial property construction. This is one of the main core functionalities which ensure that this joint venture would become a successful commercial venture in the long run. According to the Pestle factors like stable political situations, huge scope of FDI and large market size goes favourable with the JV option. Additionally, the brand value of EMF AG could be used in developing the business in Germany by Purple. It could help the management in spreading its name in the unknown region (Johnson, McLaughlin and Haueter 2015). The Joint venture also provides the companies to form a distinct tactical develo pment in the business. The major changes could be possible in forming JVs for the companies to drive the business in foreign soil. However, the joint venture may not be useful in delivering the fruitful result to the firms due to different viewpoint of business strategies. In this context, the joint venture might provide PurplePhone Group various advantages to develop its business in Germany. 2. If PhurplePhone Group Company wants to consider re-domiciling the France parent company to Monaco, then they might face many operational and strategic challenges to stay in the competition. The operational challenges are like new staff requirements, introduction of new training sessions for the new employees in the organisation, diverse corporate culture within the organisation, requirement for new technological advancements and so on (Roberts and Whited 2012). The company is currently operates a centralised treasury management system in France. For this the company has successfully maintained consolidated exposure and consolidated risk management system across the system situated in France. However, this centralised treasury management system may be disturbed after re-domiciling to Monaco. Furthermore, the company may face high risk tax accounting because the relationship between transfer pricing and an entitys tax and financial reporting system will be disturbed after considerin g re-domiciling. Therefore, the entire strategic approach will be changed due to anticipated changes in the financial reporting. For seamless function after re-domiciling their position, the company needs to follow the following steps: The company should incorporate global employees into the business. New employees can provide better excellence. However, training sessions are essential for new as well as existing employees. Here the company may face diverse cultural problems within the workplace. For this the company needs to plan and incorporate training sessions for the managers or executives to manage the multicultural organisations well. However, the huge costs are associated with these training sessions but it will contribute employees to perform well in the long run (Nesti and Stefanovi 2015). Therefore, the employee retention rate will be higher after considering such strategic change. On the other side, the company needs to create new market position in Monaco. This would be a risk factor for the business. However, PurplePhone Group is in this service industry since long time. Therefore, the operational managers could have taken lesser time for stabilizing the organisational policies and procedures across m ajor business areas of PurplePhone Group. However there are some strategic challenges are involved. The cost of living is moderately low compare to the home destination of the company. An unstable political structure is the challenge while considering re-domiciling the France parent company to Monaco. The other operational challenges are like effective database implementation, changes in business process, effective communication strategy formulation, determination of KPIs and so on. Here in this multinational business environment the company should introduce an integrated system along with central controlling procedures within the organisation. This will help in revenue and monitoring system within all departments and the operational performances will be enhanced. The company needs to take few strategic decisions for make the business operation successful. The company required to set the long term business turnover forecast against likely the condition of market of Monaco. In order to take effective decision for betterment of the business, the stock and sales figure must be evaluated for on the regular basis so that waste control management system can be implemented within the organisation (Vernimmen et al. 2014). In addition, the company needs to take decisions regarding recycling of operational waste within the organisation. For constructional development, the company only considers the private equity companies in Europe. But the company can expand their services by considering the government companies for construction. This will surely encourage more investors into the business. In this way, the multinational corporation may increase more market capitalization in the near future (Waegelein and Finance 2014). After re-domiciling their position, the company needs to plan for international tax procedures. The company needs to make fruitful agreements like Double Taxation Agreements with France and Monaco. The agreements will cover direct taxes, which in the case of Monaco are universal social charge, income tax, corporation tax and capital gain tax. The company may also engage Tax Information Exchange Agreement with all the other subsidiaries of PhurplePhone. This will allow the Revenue Commissioner to request the company can follow information relevant to a tax investigation without necessary of bilateral TIEA. With less local legislation barriers at Monaco, the company can perform freely after the changing position of the parents company from France to Monaco. However, the company may face challenges for handling future transactions, which already made with their suppliers. Here the forecasting of future exchange rate is required to be initiated. The purchasing power parity is perhaps the most suitable forecasting approach. The principle of this proposed method forecasts that the exchange rate shall change to offset price changes due to inflation. Therefore, the inflation differential rate between two countries can be mitigated with this approach. After re-domiciling the position, the company needs to be taken caf of issues regarding foreign investment. Here the company may face problems like the changing viewpoint regarding cash flow or the political and economical risks associated with Monaco. For this, the company needs to initiate multinational capital budgeting after making the strategic change. Presently, Monacos political structure welcomes strategic investments and entry alternatives into the area which will surely encourage the foreign direct investment into the new place of the company. All the above suggestions will surely help in handling operational and strategic challenges, if the business considers repositioning of their business from France to Monaco. 3. PurplePhone Group is operating under the multinational working environment. Decision making plays an important role, especially when such decisions are concerned within proposed business expanse (Johnson, McLaughlin and Haueter 2015). The company needs to explore the diverse business funding options for the proposed expansion across Asia. Common types of financing include bank loans, crowd funding, receiving funds from a venture capitalist or borrowing funds from owners of the business (Piekkari, Welch and Welch 2014). It has already been estimated that 250 million Euros will be needed to fund the proposed expansion over the next five years. In the expansion procedure, the most important factor is determination of sources of fund. Here the company is looking for business expansion in Asian countries like India and China. Here the company should evaluate the future market derivatives option for business finance. In this case, the double pair exchange rate hedging system must be evaluated (Suzuki and Okamuro 2015) The company would need to evaluate two pair of currencies for hedging the market risk. As per the theory of management of risk, PurplePhone Group will find two currency alternatives if they expand their market in Asian countries. The difference of currency rates like INR, Renminbi needs to be evaluated with the home currency of Euro (Macht and Weatherston 2014). However, the fluctuation of rate due to inflation, changes of interest rate, and many other factors are associated with multicurrency dealing (Xu et al. 2015). Furthermore, the political risks associated in countries such as India and China should also be evaluated. This risk can be mitigated by future market hedging. The company can use its working capital as a source of fund. In order to expand the business in the Asian market, the company needs to manage the multinational working capital.Fr improvement of working capital balance the company needs to concentrate more on effective stock management. The accuracy in payment terms can ensure that the company is capable of dealing short-term obligations in different business scenario. This is the most effective source of finance because there is no external risk associated with the working capital management. It is completely depend upon the effective management system of the organisation. If the company can use working capital effectively in the proposed expansion plan, then this could be another option of source of fund. The international financial market is another option for sources of fund of PurplePhone Group. The company can invest in shares and debt market for getting good returns in the short and long run. Capital market is appropriate for long-term investments. Here the company can raise finance through the sale of securities. Equity finance gives the right of the ownership, but the source of fund is risky by nature. Equity shareholders have a residual claim on the income and assets of the company. Due to high risk, the expectation of return by investors from the business is also high. However, invest in share market is another risk option but this can be beneficial for short term as well as long term earnings. Here the company may take the route of Initial Public Offers (IPO) in the primary market for equity financing. The company can raise their finance through the negotiable certificates of deposits, paper of commercials, repurchase agreements and so on. For example, the organisation can r aise finance through by selling commercial papers. Furthermore, contracts bought and sold on the spot market can be another option in case of dealing in the international market. Hybrid financing is another option, which is moderately less risky than equity finance because this has the characteristics of both the equity and debt. The company can expect more revenue from this source of fund. On the other hand, raising finance through debt is another source of fund. By secured borrowing from banks and other financial institutions, the company engage with term loan. Finance support provided by Government and its agencies is another source of fund for the company. Debenture capital issue is another option of fund. This is generally provided by suppliers of plant and machinery, vendor of raw material by deferring the payment. Lastly, there are many miscellaneous sources of fund available in the Asian market which the company can explore after the business expansion. The miscellaneous sou rces of funds are include unsecured loan, public deposits, leasing and higher purchase. To determine the sources of finance for restructuring of the company, there are many factors needs to be examined. Here are the following options needs to be examined: Cost and cash flows: Purplephone Group would seem to have capacity to rates more debt as the non-current assets exceed the existing debt Euro8m. In addition, as it is assumed that the company is not having raised any finance for several years, and it is currently holding Euro 17m non-current assets. Therefore the company will be more benefited by choosing the dept option. Factor of Risk: If the company would chose the restructuring option, material changes may be occurred. Hence, if the company is selecting the debt finance, then it should understand that the shareholders are happy to take those financial risks. Security: As long as the expansion involves investing in some non-current assets there should be enough security available for potential lenders. Therefore, the proposed security needs to be checked before taking investment decision. Availability and maturity: The shareholders would likely to support a right issue or the debt providers would be willing to lend in future for the expansion of the business. In addition, other investors may wish to fund into the business by equity investment. As the company is looking forward for permanent expansion of the company, then long term finance must be raised. To that extent that expansion requires investment in additional working capital, and then the company could raise the short-term finance. Curve of the yield: The director of Purplephone Group should consider the yield curve if it is decided to raise debt. For instance, if the curve is becoming steeper this shows an expectation that that interest rate will rise in future. In that situation, the company may hesitate to borrow additional debt, may prefer to raise fixed rate debt, or may look to hedge the interest risk rate in some way. Control: There are no change would occur to control if debt is issued. A rights issue would also have little impact on control while the share issued by the new investors may cause control issues. Conclusion: The above financial analysis clearly indicates that joint venture is the better option for PurplePhone Group. This option is better because the company can hedge their financial risk after combining their resources with EMF AG. The company would make better decisions regarding the financial crisis like interest risk, inflation risk and so on. After the joint venturing, the company will be benefitted for increase brand recognition with EMF AG. Thus more customers will show their interest into this new formed business. However, the operational control may lose after the joint venture but strategic performances will be enhanced and operational costs will be reduced. References: Brealey, R.A., Myers, S.C., Allen, F. and Mohanty, P., 2012. Principles of corporate finance. 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