FIN 501 Module 1 SLP

Initial Public Offering

The main purpose of an initial public offering (IPO) is to raise capital for the corporation. While IPOs are effective at raising capital, being listed on a stock exchange comes with heavy regulatory compliance and reporting requirements which are expensive.

The session long project (SLP) for the course will be performed using information on a company that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). To complete Module 1 SLP, please choose a company that is publicly traded in the stock market. If you are unsure which company to choose, you can look through this list of companies in the S&P 500. The company can't be a financial institution such as a bank, insurance company or a trust company.

NOTE: If you've taken FIN 301 at TUI then please choose a company different than the one you chose for FIN 301.

The company that you choose will be your SLP Company for the entire course. Please state the name of that company in each of the Session Long Project reports.

You are to search for the company's web site, approach the section called "Investors relations" in order to obtain the financial information of the company over the past several years. Your deliverables for the first Module are to write a three to four pages paper by answering the following questions:

1) Provide a brief description of the company you chose, its main business and operational activities and a short synopsis of the main developments of the company over the past few years.

To answer question 1, please include the followings together with other information that you would like to provide:

? Current stock price of the company

? Company sales/revenue for the last three years (e.g., 2009, 2010, 2011)

? Company profitability (net income) for the last three years

? Total assets for the last three years (e.g., 2009, 2010, 2011)

? Total liabilities for the last three years

? Owners equity for the last three years

? Other financial information you find relevant

Please use table to provide above information.

To access the above information, please use website key in company symbol (e.g., GE symbol for General Electric Company), click on Key Statistics and then view financials as well (underneath key statistics table).

2) Explain why you chose this company (e.g., what makes it interesting to you personally? Is it profitability of the company over the last three years or something else?). Keep in mind that one of the main goals of a for-profit corporation is the maximization of shareholders wealth.

3) This is the main part of the assignment. Find out what you can about your SLP company's IPO. If it is a newer corporation, this should not be too difficult. But if it is an older company this might be difficult. So if you cannot find any information about your company's IPO, instead discuss how you would go about taking your company public using what you've learned from the background materials and from question 1.

Keep in mind that the Securities Exchange Commission will not approve a company to get listed on a stock exchange which is financially weak and is not profitable

4) What do you perceive you have learnt in Module 1 SLP? Which of the following learning objectives do you feel you have mastered?

?Identify success factors for a firm making the IPO decision

?Describe the steps a firm must take in order to go public

Please provide your evaluation of the Module 1 SLP in brief.

NOTE: Please note that your report/assignment will not be accepted without proper citations and references. You must use the sources from the background material together with the sources you find your own. It is also REQUIRED that you answer all the questions related to learning outcomes.

Session Long Project (SLP) Expectations:

In Module 1 SLP, you are expected to:

?Describe the purpose of the paper and conclusion. An introduction and conclusion are important because many busy individuals in the business environment may only read the first and the last paragraph. If those paragraphs are not interesting, they never read the body of the paper.

?Answer the SLP questions clearly and provide necessary details. Also please