Assignment brief
For the purpose of this assignment, you are a financial journalist working for the online investment magazine ‘InvestIt!’ You have been asked to analyse a selected listed company in the retail sector, and write an article that explains whether you would advise investing in this business. The specific areas for consideration are:
• Overview of the retail sector in the country in which your chosen company operates in 2019, and an introduction to your chosen company within it.
• Analysis of the performance of your chosen company for the financial year ended 2019, and in comparison to the sector/ previous year.
• Analysis of investor information of your chosen company for the financial year ended 2019, including share price movements to 31st December 2019, and comparison to the sector/ previous year.
• Impact of Covid-19 on your chosen company and the retail sector for 2020.
• A conclusion as to whether you would currently invest in your chosen company.
• The article should be 3,000 word maximum in length (+/-10%), and suggested word counts for each area are as follows:
o Sector/company introduction – 500 words
o Performance analysis – 1,000 words
o Investor analysis – 1,000 words
o Impact of Covid and investment decision – 500 words
• The article should be in a style suitable for publication in a magazine, using proper business English and presented appropriately.
• All sources must be suitably referenced.
• An executive summary is NOT required.
• Marks will NOT be awarded for calculations, but rather the quality of the analysis.
• Marks will be split over the parts of the article as follows:
Section Marks
Introduction 15 marks
Analysis of financial performance 25 marks
Analysis of investor information 25 marks
Impact of Covid-19 and conclusion 15 marks
Presentation 20 marks