Structure:

1.    Each group must have at least four individuals in it. Each person in the group will pick a company to analyze. The company should be publicly traded and have at least one year of trading history and one set of annual financial statements. The company can be listed in any market.

2.  Each person will be responsible for doing the entire analysis for the company that he or she has chosen.

3.  At the end of the process, the group will write one report for all the firms in the group (as an investment portfolio). In this report, the firms will be compared and contrasted and the results will be presented as a whole rather than as four or five separate parts.

Grade:

The overall grade for the project will based on written report and presentation, so you need submit your written report on or before Friday, Week 4.

l. Each group will receive one grade and every group member will receive the same grade.

2. No attempt will be made to allow for intra-group differences in effort.

The Project Outline:

Part 1 : Corporate Govemance Analysis.

Who run the company: Top management, owners.

Who monitors: Board of Directors, Regulatory Authorities, Government, Equity investors, Bondholders, Banks, Lenders.

Rules of the game: Is it rigged in favor of the incumbent managers? Stockholders have powers?

Board Composition: Age and Tenure, Background, Connection to company and CEO.

Board Operations: Chairman of the Board, Meeting frequency, Attendance, Able to monitor top managers?

Investor Analyst Activity: Buy Side: Biggest stockholders, their history on corporate  govemance, Sell Side: Who are the analysts that track the firm? What are their views? Activist: Are there any activist investors in the mix? How active are they?