CASE STUDY: Orion Limited
Orion Limited is a limited company, whose head office in based in South Africa. The company has been
operation in the UK for the past 10 years. Orion provides financial services to a number of
organisations which include SME’s, property developers and investment property funds in the UK and
Africa. For the past 15 years, Orion has been a profit making firm as it has retained its previous clients,
in addition to capturing an increasing share of the market.
However, the finance director of Orion has recently got in touch with your professional consulting firm
has engaged your firm with the mandate to provide them with an explanation of the cash flow
problem that Orion Limited had been facing. The company is also dependent on the parent based in
South Africa for and when required.
In the past 2 weeks there has been a number of meetings in London and South Africa where it has
been agreed that Orion Limited should do its best to raise capital in England or Europe so as not to
depend so much on cash coming from the parent company all the time.
New Software
The current product that Orion Limited has to offer mostly to property developers and investment
funds companies is outdated. The company is looking to invest in a new product.
The details of the proposal are outlined below.
2
Super Suite
Super Suite Draft Figures £’000
Year 0 1 2 3 4 5
New Software Cost 7200
Working Capital 600
———————————————————————————–
Sales Revenue
Less:
Component AK ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
Component NK ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
Overheads (1800) (1800) (1800) (1800) (1800)
Super Suite is the first of two proposals, the expected life of this software will be 5 years and its
working capital requirements, the cost of the new software, expected revenue, components cost and
overheads are as follows;
All of the above estimates have been prepared in terms of present day costs and prices. Assume that
the cash flow arises at the end of each period. In addition, the following information has been given:
 Revenues (selling cost per unit) are expected to rise by 5% per year from year 1. The units of
sales will be 6000 units in year 1 and this will go up each year by 10% based on previous
year’s sales.
 The project will require working investment equal to 8% of expected sales revenue.
 The cost of component AK are expected to rise in line with inflation of the 3 % per year
from year 1, and these will be based on units of sales done. The cost of the components will
be £680 per unit for AK and £1080 for NK.
 Overheads cost will be fixed for the whole period of the project.
 Each package of software will be sold at £4800.
 The costs of Specialist Technology Managers (STM), who have come from South Africa
have not been taken into consideration in the forecast and are as follows:
o STM 1: will be paid £190 per hour and expected number of hours for STM1 are 1,420. The
rate paid is expected to rise in line with inflation at 3% per year from year 2 and the number
of hours is expected to reduce by 3% per year, every year from year 2 onwards.
o STM2: will be paid £160 per hour and expected number of hours for SMT2 are 1,820. The
rate paid is expected to rise in line with inflation at 3 % per year, every year from year 2
onwards.
3
If Orion Limited invests in Super Suite, then the discount rate that will be required to assess
the NPV would be 12%. Assume that cash flows arise at the end of each period.
Opening of New Office
You will also work in collaboration with the London office manager to prepare cash budget will be part
of the report, but should be included in the appendix. The London office has plans of opening a
consultancy office near Liverpool Street. It is hoped that this store will be opened for business on 1st
August 2018. You have also been informed that to start with, the company will only offer two of the
most popular services for a period of 3 months from August to October 2018. This will be done to test
the market and see if the business will break-even in the same period. The two most popular services
to be offered will be the Business Planning (BP) for SME’s and the other is Strategy design (SD).
The company has provided you with the following information regarding the costs and estimated sales
for the period mentioned above.
Orion Consultancy plan to put in £6,000 as start-up capital and plan to sale up to 9500 consultancy
services (combined) of BP and SD during the same period. They are not sure which of the two products
will produce the best profit for the company. The company will have to offer a minimum of 1,500
services each for BP and SD each month to ensure that that they meet the requirements of the
supplier.
Total consultancy services for each month are as follows: August 3000, September 3,000 and October
3,500 of which 2,000 will be (SD).
To help with the setup of the store they company has just concluded a deal with one of the high street
banks to get a loan of £48,000 on the 1st of August 2018. The interest on this loan will be 3% to be
paid every month. The company will be required to make 12 equal payments to repay the loan every
3 months starting end of October 2018.
The assistant manager has also requested that you do provide them with some information on the
importance of budgeting in the consultancy industry, as this is all new to them and this is the first time
they are doing a project like this.
4
Financial information
As mentioned above the company plans to sell a total of 9,500 services between August and
October 2018. Customers are prepared to pay £15 for the BP and £18 for SD. The fixed costs
for the period are as below:
The company will be bringing in an expert at £12 for BP and £15 each for the SD. The fixed costs
are for the whole period so they are not affected by the level of sales, on the other hand
variable costs (cost of expert) will increase with sales output, and thus it is sales output
multiplied with variable cost per product.
The suppliers of the experts have agreed to supply the company the first experts of required
services on credit to be paid end of August 2018. Thereafter, all experts supplied will be paid
as 60% cash and 40% the following month. Revenue from consultancy will be on the basis of
80% cash and 20% credit to be paid the following month.
New Company Acquisition
Orion Limited is also considering to grow its operations across continental Europe, and at the
moment there are two potential target companies that can help Orion in creating a presence
in Europe, Madison Fund Holland and Ulendo Financial Services Spain. For the purpose of this
analysis, assume that the required investment funds can be sourced from parent company or
Orion can source these funds from other sources. It should be noted that Orion is only willing
to acquire only one of the companies. The data for the past three years is given below:

 

 

 

Madison Fund Holland £’000 Ulendo Financial Services Spain £,000
Income Statement 2014 2015 2016 2014 2015 2016
Turnover 8,406 9,812 10,516 14,529 16,849 19,516
Administrative Expense (6,012) (6,643) (7,102) (16,926) (19,455) (22,362)
Operating prof it/ (Loss) 2,394 3,169 3,414 (2,397) (2,606) (2,846)
Interest receivable and simlar income 12 14 32 30 34 39
Interest payable and similar charges (38) (44) (26) (19) (22) (26)
Profit/ (Loss) on ordinary activities 2,368 3,139 3,420 (2,386) (2,594) (2,833)
Tax (710) (942) (1,026)
Net profit/( Loss) 1,658 2,197 2,394 ( 2, 386) (2,594) (2,833)
Fixed Assets
Intangible fixed assets 4,721 5,426 3,577 3,235 3,719 4,274
Tangible fixed assests 1,458 1,676 2,250 5,785 6,649 7,643
6,179 7,102 5,827 9,020 10,368 11,917
Current Assets
Debtors: amounts falling due after
more than one year 468 536 409 579 666 765
Debtors: amounts falling due after
within one year 2,679 3,080 6,322 3,847 4,422 5,083
Cash at bank and in hand 730 840 1,599 1,298 1,349 1,404
3,877 4,456 8,330 5,724 6,437 7,252
Creditors: amounts falling due
within one year (2,184) (1,489) (1,693) (9,834) (13,490) (17,687)
Net current assets/ (liabilities) 1,693 2,967 6,637 (4,110) (7,052) (10,435)
Total assets less current liabilities 7,872 10,069 12,464 4,910 3,315 1,482
Net assets/ (Uabilities) 7,872 10,069 12,464 4,910 3,315 1,482
Capital Reserves
Called up share capital (£1 nomial
shares) 100 100 100 450 450 450
Share remium account 1,805 1,805 1,805

 

 

Capital redemption reserve 2 2 2
Profit and Loss account 5,965 8,162 10,557 4,460 2,865 1,032
Shareholders funds/ (deficit) 7,872 10,069 12,464 4,910 3,315 1,482

 

write a management report to the management of Orion in which the
following points should be discussed.
0 A detailed Literature Review of the tools you have used such as cash budgets, breakeven
analysis, NPV and ratios and their importance to business.
0 Provide an explanation on the different sources of funding (3 maximum) the company can
use and their advantages and disadvantages and make recommendations as to how the
company can manage the same to help in the planned expansion program.
a Analyse the Investment proposal by using NPV and provide recommendations. You should
also briefly comment on other investment proposal techniques that Orion may use, and the
limitations of using those techniques
0 A computation of your breakeven analysis and the cash budget for the first 3 months.

 

 What other factors may a firm take into account when making investment decisions.
 Based on the information provided and to the extent possible, perform ratio analysis and
make recommendations as to which company they should be looking to invest ¡n. What
other information will help you in making an informed decision on ratio analysis.
 An evaluation of company performance or position during the same period
 Other issues for management to consider that you think are vital for them to survive and
make a profit.