How is the commercial margin calculated? (Difficulty: Moderate)

What does EBITDA mean? (Difficulty: Easy)

Which ratio can be used to measure the vulnerability of a firm to a takeover? (Difficulty: Moderate)

Which of the following items is key intermediate balance? (Difficulty: Moderate)

If, year on year, sales revenue decreased by 10%, gross margin increased from 40% to 50% of sales revenue and profit before tax decreased by 5%, by how much did the Selling General and Administrative Expenses (which were 20% of sales revenue in the first year) increase or decrease from one year to the next (assume no interest expense accrued during the period). (Difficulty: Difficult)

Adagio Inc. is a high tech firm involved in advanced software research, manufacturing and sales and distribution of advanced electronic devices in growing markets. At the beginning of X1 shareholders’ equity was 2,000 CU. Long term debt was held at an interest rate of 4% (the same rate would apply in X2). The CFO of the company is mandated to adjust the long-term financing policy in such a way that interest expenses consume 10% of the value added. From period X1 to period X2, production increased by 10% from its value of 3,000 CU in X1. Simultaneously, consumptions from third parties increased by 16% from its value of 2,600 in X1. The philosophy of management is that value added should be partitioned as follows: 40% to employees in the form of remunerations in the larger sense, 10% go to paying for interest expenses, 20% go to the state in the form of taxes paid, and 30% go to shareholders (but no dividends are paid in either year). What was the return on net assets [defined as long-term funding] (RONA) during X1 and during X2. (Difficulty: Difficult)

Entities A and B are fairly similar in size. They each have 205 CU of shareholders’ equity at the beginning of period X1. They serve the same type of markets but are not in competition with each other. However they differ widely with regards to the proportion of costs that do not vary with volume of sales (depreciation, managers’ remunerations, etc.): Entity A has 80% of its costs that do not vary with volume of sales, while entity B has only 20% of its costs that do not vary with volume of sales. Both entities showed a negative income from operations in period X1 equivalent to 5% on sales revenue of 100 CU. If sales revenue for each firm were to increase by 10% during X2, which of the four scenarios below would you likely expect to see happen?

Which of the following statements is most correct? (Difficulty: Moderate)

In which of the following four cases is EBIT most useful? (Difficulty: Moderate)

Slag is a foundry by-product, clinker is a by-product of cement manufacturing, tree and grass clippings are gardening by-products. Each one of these by products can find useful utilizations (sludge filtering systems, landfill and top soil creation, construction materials, compost, mulch, etc.) (Difficulty: Moderate)