(c) Define ‘market risk’ for Mr Allejandra and explain why Gluck and Goodman’s market risk exposure is
increased by failing to have an effective audit committee. (5 marks)
(c) Define ‘market risk’ for Mr Allejandra and explain why Gluck and Goodman’s market risk exposure is
increased by failing to have an effective audit committee. (5 marks)
(c) Mr Cobar, the chief executive of SHC, has decided to draft two alternative statements to explain both possible
outcomes of the secrecy/licensing decision to shareholders. Once the board has decided which one to pursue,
the relevant draft will be included in a voluntary section of the next corporate annual report.
Required:
(i) Draft a statement in the event that the board chooses the secrecy option. It should make a convincing
business case and put forward ethical arguments for the secrecy option. The ethical arguments should
be made from the stockholder (or pristine capitalist) perspective. (8 marks)
(ii) Draft a statement in the event that the board chooses the licensing option. It should make a convincing
business case and put forward ethical arguments for the licensing option. The ethical arguments should
be made from the wider stakeholder perspective. (8 marks)
(iii) Professional marks for the persuasiveness and logical flow of arguments: two marks per statement.
(4 marks)
2 The risk committee at Southern Continents Company (SCC) met to discuss a report by its risk manager, Stephanie
Field. The report focused on a number of risks that applied to a chemicals factory recently acquired by SCC in another
country, Southland. She explained that the new risks related to the security of the factory in Southland in respect of
burglary, to the supply of one of the key raw materials that experienced fluctuations in world supply and also an
environmental risk. The environmental risk, Stephanie explained, was to do with the possibility of poisonous
emissions from the Southland factory.
The SCC chief executive, Choo Wang, who chaired the risk committee, said that the Southland factory was important
to him for two reasons. First, he said it was strategically important to the company. Second, it was important because
his own bonuses depended upon it. He said that because he had personally negotiated the purchase of the Southland
factory, the remunerations committee had included a performance bonus on his salary based on the success of the
Southland investment. He told Stephanie that a performance-related bonus was payable when and if the factory
achieved a certain level of output that Choo considered to be ambitious. ‘I don’t get any bonus at all until we reach
a high level of output from the factory,’ he said. ‘So I don’t care what the risks are, we will have to manage them.’
Stephanie explained that one of her main concerns arose because the employees at the factory in Southland were not
aware of the importance of risk management to SCC. She said that the former owner of the factory paid less attention
to risk issues and so the staff were not as aware of risk as Stephanie would like them to be. ‘I would like to get risk
awareness embedded in the culture at the Southland factory,’ she said.
Choo Wang said that he knew from Stephanie’s report what the risks were, but that he wanted somebody to explain
to him what strategies SCC could use to manage the risks.
Required:
(a) Describe four strategies that can be used to manage risk and identify, with reasons, an appropriate strategy
for each of the three risks mentioned in the case. (12 marks)
(d) Corporate annual reports contain both mandatory and voluntary disclosures.
Required:
(i) Distinguish, using examples, between mandatory and voluntary disclosures in the annual reports of
public listed companies. (6 marks)
(b) Explain the meaning of Stephanie’s comment: ‘I would like to get risk awareness embedded in the culture
at the Southland factory.’ (5 marks)
4 Hogg Products Company (HPC), based in a developing country, was recently wholly acquired by American Overseas
Investments (AOI), a North American holding company. The new owners took the opportunity to completely review
HPC’s management, culture and systems. One of the first things that AOI questioned was HPC’s longstanding
corporate code of ethics.
The board of AOI said that it had a general code of ethics that HPC, as an AOI subsidiary, should adopt. Simon Hogg,
the chief executive of HPC, disagreed however, and explained why HPC should retain its existing code. He said that
HPC had adopted its code of ethics in its home country which was often criticised for its unethical business behaviour.
Some other companies in the country were criticised for their ‘sweat shop’ conditions. HPC’s adoption of its code of
ethics, however, meant that it could always obtain orders from European customers on the guarantee that products
were made ethically and in compliance with its own highly regarded code of ethics. Mr Hogg explained that HPC had
an outstanding ethical reputation both locally and internationally and that reputation could be threatened if it was
forced to replace its existing code of ethics with AOI’s more general code.
When Ed Tanner, a senior director from AOI’s head office, visited Mr Hogg after the acquisition, he was shown HPC’s
operation in action. Mr Hogg pointed out that unlike some other employers in the industry, HPC didn’t employ child
labour. Mr Hogg explained that although it was allowed by law in the country, it was forbidden by HPC’s code of
ethics. Mr Hogg also explained that in his view, employing child labour was always ethically wrong. Mr Tanner asked
whether the money that children earned by working in the relatively safe conditions at HPC was an important source
of income for their families. Mr Hogg said that the money was important to them but even so, it was still wrong to
employ children, as it was exploitative and interfered with their education. He also said that it would alienate the
European customers who bought from HPC partly on the basis of the terms of its code of ethics.
Required:
(a) Describe the purposes and typical contents of a corporate code of ethics. (9 marks)
(ii) Explain why the disclosure of voluntary information in annual reports can enhance the company’s
accountability to equity investors. (4 marks)
(ii) Identify the points that must be confirmed and any action necessary in order for capital treatment to
apply to the transaction. (4 marks)
(b) Provide the directors of Acrux Ltd with a detailed explanation of the maximum rate of tax that will be suffered
on both the distributed and non-distributed profits of the non-UK resident investee companies where:
(1) there is a double tax treaty between the UK and the country in which the individual companies are
resident; and
(2) there is no such double tax treaty.
Note: you are not required to explain the position of the overseas resident branches. (6 marks)
6 Discuss how developments in each of the following areas has affected the scope of the audit and the audit work
undertaken:
(a) fair value accounting; (6 marks)
2 Your firm was appointed as auditor to Indigo Co, an iron and steel corporation, in September 2005. You are the
manager in charge of the audit of the financial statements of Indigo, for the year ending 31 December 2005.
Indigo owns office buildings, a workshop and a substantial stockyard on land that was leased in 1995 for 25 years.
Day-to-day operations are managed by the chief accountant, purchasing manager and workshop supervisor who
report to the managing director.
All iron, steel and other metals are purchased for cash at ‘scrap’ prices determined by the purchasing manager. Scrap
metal is mostly high volume. A weighbridge at the entrance to the stockyard weighs trucks and vans before and after
the scrap metals that they carry are unloaded into the stockyard.
Two furnaces in the workshop melt down the salvageable scrap metal into blocks the size of small bricks that are then
stored in the workshop. These are sold on both credit and cash terms. The furnaces are now 10 years old and have
an estimated useful life of a further 15 years. However, the furnace linings are replaced every four years. An annual
provision is made for 25% of the estimated cost of the next relining. A by-product of the operation of the furnaces is
the production of ‘clinker’. Most of this is sold, for cash, for road surfacing but some is illegally dumped.
Indigo’s operations are subsidised by the local authority as their existence encourages recycling and means that there
is less dumping of metal items. Indigo receives a subsidy calculated at 15% of the market value of metals purchased,
as declared in a quarterly return. The return for the quarter to 31 December 2005 is due to be submitted on
21 January 2006.
Indigo maintains manual inventory records by metal and estimated quality. Indigo counted inventory at 30 November
2005 with the intention of ‘rolling-forward’ the purchasing manager’s valuation as at that date to the year-end
quantities per the manual records. However, you were not aware of this until you visited Indigo yesterday to plan
your year-end procedures.
During yesterday’s tour of Indigo’s premises you saw that:
(i) sheets of aluminium were strewn across fields adjacent to the stockyard after a storm blew them away;
(ii) much of the vast quantity of iron piled up in the stockyard is rusty;
(iii) piles of copper and brass, that can be distinguished with a simple acid test, have been mixed up.
The count sheets show that metal quantities have increased, on average, by a third since last year; the quantity of
aluminium, however, is shown to be three times more. There is no suitably qualified metallurgical expert to value
inventory in the region in which Indigo operates.
The chief accountant disappeared on 1 December, taking the cash book and cash from three days’ sales with him.
The cash book was last posted to the general ledger as at 31 October 2005. The managing director has made an
allegation of fraud against the chief accountant to the police.
The auditor’s report on the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2004 was unmodified.
Required:
(a) Describe the principal audit procedures to be carried out on the opening balances of the financial statements
of Indigo Co for the year ending 31 December 2005. (6 marks)