Gutted, just couldn't get my head round what to do for most of the questions. Only answered about a third of the paper then left exam.

I didn't revise for it in May and got 41, but that was a much easier paper in my opinion. Just didn't revise enough for this. No point crying over it, sh*t happens. 

How are you guys managing to talk about an exam that is being sat as you write?

Surely that's not allowed??

Got 8% as well, with Kd 3.14% - I thought it seemed right as market value was higher than par and bond was only 6%. Ke 10.5 % and Kpref around 5%.

NPV got circa 140m and 16% for $A discount rate. Fingers crossed we're correct Marcus :)

WACC was 4.75% !!! and well the calculation from Discounted cash flow GBP was 16%.

What do you think how 18 marks was distributed, really appreciate any ones' help.  

Lets hope so Marta.

Thought the NPV's had to come to same value, just had to use different discount rate and currency cash flows.

 Im fairly sure cost of equity was 10.5 so to get it down to around 5/6 surely the weightings would have to be insane.  What about the free cash flows 2.7m? Then just do the 0.7m savings to perpetuitiy then add it on...?

 Did yo have higher P/E values than DCF ones, that also didn't seem right to me from previous papers, but didn't have enough time to start doing it again etc and thinking about it...found it really time pressured!

Don't recall 2.7m, I used 4m earnings and add back deprn 0.5m, and discounted 4.5m/8%-2% giving 75m without synergies, then add 0.7m savings/0.08 = 8.75m on the top of 75m with synergies.i have not done anything with inreased WC requirements of I think 1.8m as i realised I didnt include it after Ive done all the calculations.

P/e valuation 4mx13 has come the same as asset basis 52m as per book value? Would make sense as FR was not profitable? But not sure if i got it right.

Overall I recommended start bid at 80m going down to min 65m I think ...  anyway we'll get marks for each small correct step in approach even if figures are wrong, hopefully that will do to pass!

Oh right I took the WC off the 4.5 to get 2.7..then 2.7x1.02/0.08-0.02 but didnt come out near the 75m unless you added on the 25 mill for the intra-group stuff.

 Yeah I think my p/e was around 57 then up to 61 ish, used a P/E of about 12.25 before but think i did 4.7 x 13 after with the synergy saving of 0.7m.

 My answer to q2 was pretty disgusting tbh thinking about it! Be outrageous if you nailed some of the calculations and still failed due to a poor question!

i did not enjoy this exam a single bit. my time in the exam room was more of torture than assessment an exam is meant to be.

P3 was so practical and required a lot of common sense answers and i think that was much better a paper than this F3

Why CIMA why? i had put in more than average study time, but i feel i might perform worse than May 2011 coz then i got 43%, now i expect hmmmmmmmm maybe i dont know but a pass will surely be celebrated hugely

Oh the joy of time pressure.

I somehow missed (in Q1) the fact that the level of gearing of PP was similar to that of FR so it was a straightforward WACC calcluation for the DF for cash flow valuation.

I ungreared PP's beta and regeared with M PLC's gearing which was a numptey thing to do, nonetheless I followed through with the valuations and hope to gain follow through marks.

Q2, assessing TTT's objectives before and after an acquisition to see if they had been met, there were calculations involved for 11 marks, hope to have scored some of them, did some discussion on each objective before and after.

Q3, I looked at it and knew the first two parts were straightforward, TERP, but wasn't sure about the rest and didn't want to throw marks away and so went with Q2 instead.

Q4, very nice, fairly straightforward NPV, both methods with discussion, i'm hoping to have scored more than half marks on this one.

Good luck to you all.

Q1. WACC took most of the time. It was around 8.6%, if I recall correctly. WC requirement of 1.8 M was the trcik (might miss a few marks but hopefully would be able to secure most of them). Didn't read it was going to increase by 10% so took the net cash value and then used 2% g to calculated the NPV of perpetuity. Did separate calculation for synergy and added it to NPV. Got the NPV around 50M, with P/E around 60+ and market value of assets was even lesser. Advised 50 to 60 was good and anything above would be a bonus. However, if there are other factors e.g. attraction for PPP to acquire FR and use its expertise to make is a real profitable company, then with its infrastructure, it might be a good attraction for them and they may be ready to pay premium. 

On the competition actions, risk of adverse effect on market value of FR and PPP, reputational risk, restricted access to finance for the period of pending invesitigation, adverse conclusion restricting the acquisition, monetary penalties which can be material etc. 

On question two couldnt' do much calculations, however, tried to workout projected financial statements both for debt and equity finance of the project to show that gearing of 40% was ok no matter whether it was financed through debt or equity. Also advised to create some congrunece between objectives of dividend payout increase each year vis-a-vis horizontoal integration and organic growth, as there was obvious conflict. Growing dividend payouts each year and huge expansion should't go side by side because the best source of finance is retained earning, most easily available and without issuing costs. Was more related to E3, I guess, but I was fine with it.

And assistance from Treasury function could include their expertise on money market, capital market investments for availability of funds. Their knowlege of capital and money markets etc. (dont' remember if it was in Q1 or 2? probably 2)

And that was all. Time ended and I couldn't attempt the last one, though with extra half an hour, would have secured some very important 10-15 marks.

P.S. Paul, I am a bit confused on right issue involved in Q2, as you have referred to in your post. Can't recall it in Q2. If I missed on it, I sure am going to have a resit and if its a typo relating it to Q2, then I stand a 30% chance of getting through.