Financial statement analysis

Background: This assignment is based on Reckitt Benckiser. Its purpose is to investigate the extent to which the organization is successful in achieving its corporate objectives through its business model and strategy, through a financial analysis of its results. Task: Compile a report covering the following areas: • Key activities and brief description of its business model (strategy) • An evaluation of profitability from both a management and equity shareholder perspective. • An evaluation of its financial position from both a short-term (liquidity) and long-term (gearing) perspective. • An evaluation of its cash flow, comparing cash flow performance with profit performance. • A concluding summary that briefly evaluates the overall performance and position of the business. Guidance notes: • Your reference source s will be the latest annual report and accounts of Reckitt Benckiser. • You must show all calculations and identify the source and location of the data. You are recommended to include the calculations as an appendix and compile a table of the results for each section of your report (except the first and last sections). You must define all measures used and be particularly careful in the labelling of results. • We are looking for the trend as well as the absolute result so you must produce calculations for the past two years (no longer time series is needed). • You may not use or quote any calculations published in the report (the formula they use may differ from yours and they never publish their formulas. • Be selective in the measures that you use. Make sure they tell a story about your business. • The primary focus should be on measures analysis and interpretation within the wider industry and market contexts. • The word count for this project is 1500 words with tolerance in the word limit . Please note that the calculations in the appendix do not contribute to it.