Good Example Of Report On Referring To The Types Of Data Which Can Be Used For Ratio Analysis Brooks (2008, PP. 3-5) Distinguishes The Following:

Analysis of Financial Statements of JCDecaux

Introduction
The attached financial statements communicate financial information about JC Decaux, one of the world leaders in the outdoor advertising. The company is listed on Euronext stock exchange and has numerous shareholders requiring periodic information to evaluate the economic situation and performance of the company (Elliott and Elliott, 2009, p. 3). In their turn shareholders and analysts use the accounting information provided by the company for ratio analysis which is one of the main tools of financial analysis (Palepu et al, 2010, p. 205).
Analysis of ratios showing the past and present performance of the company helps assess effectiveness of management in operations, investments, financing as well as dividends areas. It also helps make forecasts of the company’s future performance. Though ratio analysis may not give complete answers, it may show potential weaknesses and strengths for further analytical research. As will be seen later the ratios have mostly been used as a starting point for more detailed financial analysis as they can point out the areas of performance and considerable changes, where more careful analysis would be warranted (Malikova and Zdenec, 2012).

Time series data compare ratios of the same company over a few years
Cross-sectional data compare ratios of a number of companies in the same industry at the same point of time
Benchmarking, that is comparing company’s ratios to some standard.
This paper will mainly utilize time series data with occasional use of the other two methods. The advantages of this approach are that while time series analysis makes possible to assess the effectiveness of the company’s policies over time, the cross-sectional comparison will examine JC Decaux performance relative to its competition. In particular, JC Decaux ratios for 2013 will be contrasted with its ratios for 2012 and with ratios of Clear Channel Outdoor, its closest competitor for the same periods. In addition, some ratios will be contrasted with industry or market ratios thus putting the company’s performance into the relevant context.

Value of the information in the Financial Statements

Annual financial statements of a company are important source of information. Its relevance for investors have been empirically proven in various studies, the most prominent of which is perhaps that of Ball and Brown (1968). Before their seminal research on the usefulness of accounting income, it was generally believed that accounting numbers had hardly any relationship to the reality. Ball and Brown have empirically proven usefulness of accounting information for the investors’ decision. Annual statements of the companies contain a lot of information both financial and non-financial. Though this paper focuses more on the financial analysis of the company, it can be argued that non-financial information has important value for investors. One should look no further than to the famous investor Warren Buffet for the confirmation of the value of qualitative information. Describing Buffet’s approach to investing Hagstrom (2005) says that most important tenets include
Understandability of the business model. This allows an investor to invest within his “circle of competence”. An investor should find answers as to what the competitive advantages of the business are that will facilitate profit generation in future.
Consistency in profit generation. No one can predict the future, but consistently profitable businesses are more likely to perform well in the future.

Quality of management is important.

And for quantitative analysis an investor or analyst should look for such elements as Property, Plant and Equipment, working capital, liquidity, profitability, earnings etc (Belkaoui, 2005). Taking an investor perspective, such ratios as Price to earnings, earnings per share and dividend yield provide important information in investment decisions.

Background and Strategy

Established in France in 1964 by Jean-Claude Decaux, the company’s business model is based on an innovative idea: to provide cities with the required street infrastructure such as bus shelters free of charge, however, in consideration of it, the cities should grant JCDecaux a long term concession in placing outdoor advertising on the installed constructions.  The company has three main sectors: Advertising on Street Furniture, Billboards and Transport Advertising.  As the duration of concessions are long term, often more than 20 years, the diversity of contracts and markets make it likely that the business would have favorable long term prospects. Presently (2013) the company has 1,1 million advertising faces in over than 60 countries with revenues topping EUR 2,6 billion. Starting as a family business about 50 years ago, at present JCDecaux is a public company listed on the Euronext stock exchange. However, significant interest (about 70%) is still controlled by Decaux family (JCDecaux annual report 2013, p. 207). It is interesting to note for analysts that family controlled firms are still one of the most common forms of ownership worldwide (Ali and Hwang, 2000), a factor which may decrease the usefulness of accounting information to some extent, because the owning family, having access to the internal company information, would rely less on the public communication. On the other hand, having a family control makes business less vulnerable to the outside shareholders pressure for short term profits and this facilitates achievement of long term goals. While the company works on its organic growth, the annual report shows that JCDecaux is widely employing acquisitions. This process is helped by its strong financial structure, good track record and powerful advertising networks (JCDecaux 2012 annual report). It is understandable, because in order to get long term concessions from cities local authorities, the company need “acquisitions or establishing alliances with companies holding strong positions in their markets”. The financial consequence of this strategy will be clearly seen later in the discussion of performance ratios. Overall, the objectives of the company appear to be as follows:
Ensure stable growth of the revenues by tapping new markets and extending in the existing ones, in order to provide stable source of income for its shareholders;

Avoid or minimize financial and other risks in pursuing the strategy outlined above.

Accounting analysis
JCDecaux reports under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Numerous studies (e.g. Albu et al, 2011) point to advantages of IFRS reporting referring in particular to ‘increased comparability, transparency and quality of financial reporting’ (p. 78), accompanied however, by ‘increased volatility of the results and diminishing conservatism’ (p. 79). It is asserted that introducing fair value accounting IFRS has enhanced the usefulness of accounting information (IFRS Foundation, 2011a&b). Fair value measurement communicates in timely manner changes in assets value and therefore it is deemed more relevant for the decision making process of users of the financial statements (Aboody et al. 1999).

Ratio analysis

Financial ratios represent the relationships between different elements of the financial statements (Elliott and Elliott, 2009, p. 681). Bull (2005) recommends that because financial ratios are measures of the overall performance and there can be various ratios calculated, It would be helpful, by analyzing each process, to choose the most appropriate ratio providing pertinent information for analysis. Another aspect is that in order to provide relevant information ratios should be properly defined in order to compare like with like. This paper will analyse the different aspects of JCDecaux business.

Measuring Profitability

The starting point for financial analysis of a company is its profitability analysis which can be measured by the following ratios
ROE=[Net Profit]/[Shareholders equity] and Net profit margin=[Net Proft]/[Sales]
ROE is an important indicator of the company’s performance as it measures how well management has used the funds entrusted to them by the shareholders. It is of particular interest for shareholders as in the long run the value of the firm is affected by ROE (Palepu et al, 2010, p. 208).
The foregoing table depicts change in ROE which has a clear downward trend. A brief review of the latest financial statements reveals that one of the main contributors to this is the impairment of goodwill. While the operating performance of the business appears to be satisfactory, the Management Discussion & Analysis attributes the reduction in net profit of the Group for the years 2013 and 2012 to the impairments losses. The qualitative information provided in the Background and Strategy analysis section provides a clue for explanation. The statement of financial position shows goodwill as the main asset of the company to the tune of EUR 1,356 billion as of 2012. Impairment of this goodwill means that the company may have overpaid when it acquired interest in some of its subsidiaries. It is worth mentioning that goodwill impairment is a very subjective process, depending on the management opinions and projections of the future. Ding et al (2008, p. 722) provide some insights regarding goodwill impairment saying that under dispersed ownership shareholders are focused on short term profits and may not like large write-offs of goodwill. However, family controlled businesses are more likely to be less concerned with that due to a different motivation, which the case at hand clearly demonstrates. Now, having understood the possible reason for low profitability, one may ask the question whether this strategy is justified. As Hope (2006, p. 163) explains some companies pursue growth strategies unprofitably, overpaying for acquisitions and new customers and markets. On the other hand, as will be seen in the course of Price to earnings (P/E) ratio analysis, it appears that market has certain confidence in the company’s strategy.
Palepu et al (2010) provide a useful reference table of historical values of the key financial ratios for European businesses. Thus, for the period of 1992 ~ 2008 the average ROE is 10,2% which is far higher than that of JCDecaux. It could be also interesting to note that industry ROE is 11,7% (Reuters, 2015). The following table demonstrates calculation of the net income margin.

The same reason, that is the impairment of goodwill, explains dwindling net income margin over the three year period.

Measuring Efficiency
Business efficiency focuses on the economic use of resources controlled by business and how well the management discharges its stewardship mandate. The company measures its operational efficiency by the use of two ratios: operating profit margin and EBIT margin.
Operating Profit margin=[Operating Profit]/[Sales] where operating profit is defined as revenues less direct operating and selling, general and administrative expenses (JCDecaux, 2013 annual statements).
EBIT margin=[EBIT]/[Sales] where EBIT is the operating margin less consumption of spare parts used for maintenance, depreciation, amortisation and provisions (net). It is measured in two ways: before impairment losses and after impairment losses (JCDecaux, 2013 annual statements).
Once a contract with a city is entered into, the initial capital expenditure into infrastructure is effected. After that operating expenditure is mostly fixed, and therefore the revenues is the main factor driving operating margin. The implication is that revenues increases would positively influence the operating margin while decreases in revenues will have negative effect on the operating margin. The table shows that operating margin is relatively stable over the period reviewed and is hovering about 23%. This is attributable to the effective work of sales department of the group as well as cost control (JCDecaux annual statements 2012 & 2013). As explained by Hope (2006, p. 164) declining operating margins would have signified deteriorating performance, which is clearly not the case with this company. Putting the above figures into context, it would be useful to refer to ratios of the closest competitor- Clear Channel One. According to Nasdaq operating ratio of the Clear Channel One is 10% and it appears that JCDecaux runs operations relatively efficient.
Adjusted for impairment and write-offs, operational EBIT shows consistent level of about 13%. It has similar explanation as operating margin, but in addition it shows that the company is in control of spare parts, an item excluded from the calculation of operating margin and captured in EBIT. Overall the efficiency ratios demonstrate consistent performance of JCDecaux in operating activities.

Liquidity position

The most common way to measure the liquidity risks is to apply current ratio as
follows:
Current ratio=[Current assets]/[Current liabilities]
This ratio has as its objective the measurement of the company’s ability to repay its current liabilities. As current assets and current liabilities both have short term duration, normally up to 1 year, this ratio serves as an important indicator of the company’s liquidity. Usually analysts require current ratio to be more than 1 as it will signal that the firm will likely have enough cash from realization of its current assets to repay its current liabilities (Palepu et al, 2010, p. 221). The following table depicts current ratio of JCDecaux.
After some fall in 2012 liquidity position has substantially improved in 2013. All this period current ratio has been in excess of 1, signaling adequate liquidity position of the JCDecaux group. However, this ratio is industry specific and too high level may point out to the slow current assets turnover. In explaining the decrease of the current ratio to 1,07 in 2012 one can look to Bartoletti (2012) arguing that Companies with a large quantity of fixed assets and long-term debt may appear to be tight on liquidity, because of impact of the current portion of the long term debt (CPLTD). In fact JCDecaux had substantial amount in this account: EUR 260 million as at the end of 2012. But it was shown by Bartoletti, that repayment of this long term debt comes not from the current assets conversion, but rather from the use of fixed assets. As he says “take CPLTD out of the equation, and their true liquidity is much rosier”. Now turning to the significant improvement of the ratio in 2013, a brief review of the financial statements shows that current assets increase is attributable to increase in cash position which was the result of taking on more long-term financial borrowing and not operational performance improvement per se. Ross et al (2010, p. 49) explains that the current ratio could be affected by various transactions, e.g. by borrowing long term and keeping cash for some time. This would result in increase in cash while short term liabilities remain unaffected, which was the case with JCDecaux in 2013.
As the short term assets have different nature and liquidity, analysts often apply so called acid test ratio by excluding current inventory from calculation as it is the least liquid asset in this class (Alexander et al, 2011, p. 822). However, as could be expected for an advertising company, inventories constitute a very small part of assets and would not have a considerable impact on the current ratio. Therefore acid ratio is not calculated here.

Capital Structure and Solvency

The capital structure of the company is influenced by its equity and debt financing policies. There are certain advantages related to debt financing. First of all, debt instruments are usually cheaper as they carry less risk for investors. Second, the interest paid on debt is tax-deductible as opposed to the dividends payable to stockholders, which are not normally allowed for tax deduction. One more important reason for use of debt is its disciplining effect on management and mitigating to some extent the agency problem arising in case of large free cash flows remain at the discretion of management (Jensen and Meckling, 1976).
On the other hand, too much reliance on debt could expose the company to financial risks at times of market crisis or stress, as was experienced in 2008-2009. Therefore it is important for a company to find an optimal capital structure. There are a number of ratios to measure financial leverage, and the following three will be used for the purposes of this paper (Palepu et al, 2010, p. 222).
Debt-to-equity = [Current and non-current debt]/([equity]+ [Current and non-
current debt])
Net-debt-to-equity= [Current and non-current debt]-[cash & marketable securities])/[equity]

The following table depicts both ratios for three year period.

It appears that financial leverage of the company is relatively moderate, but has grown substantially in 2013. This can be explained by the probable further acquisition plans of JCDecaux, as it has kept a substantial part of the loan proceeds in cash accounts. Apart from pure economic considerations, the level of leverage is influenced by the local market orientation. E.g. in the UK and US the companies raise capital through the stock market, whereas in Germany and some other continental European countries including France, stock markets are relatively smaller, corporate ownership is concentrated, and companies put more reliance on bank debts (Leuz and Wüstemann, 2003).
It would be useful to contrast debt financing of JCDecaux with Clear Channel One. Looking into the latter’s company annual report (Clear Channel One, annual report 2012), one can derive the following data: Equity : USD 446 mln, Long term debt: USD 4,925 mln

Debt to equity ratio: 91%.

The unambiguous conclusion is that JCDecaux is much more stable than its competitor.
Interest coverage ratio= [Operating margin]/[Financial expenses]
The latter ratio indicates how easy can the firm meet its interest obligations, including all interest under loans, financial lease agreements etc.
The foregoing tables demonstrate that the company can easily meet its interest payments and this serves as an indication that the debt level is within acceptable limits. This conclusion also confirmed by the covenants calculations as indicated in the annual statements of the company.
The annual report of the company states that the financing sources of JCDecaux are committed, and are subject to different restrictive covenants, calculated based on the consolidated financial statements. In particular, the company is required to maintain some specific financial ratios: Interest coverage ratio: should be greater than 3.5 and [net debt]/[operating margin] should not be greater than 3.5. The ratio analysis evidences that both ratios are easily met by JCDecaux.

Investors ratios: Earnings per share and Price to earnings ratios

Basic EPS is calculated by dividing net income available for distribution to common shareholders (i.e., net income or loss attributable to the parent entity adjusted for preferred stock dividends) by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Any derivatives attached to the shares are excluded from the basic EPS calculation (E&Y, 2014). While this is a widely accepted ratio, used by investors, it is often criticized by accountants and analysts as it does not consider amount of assets required to generate these earnings. Also, two companies may have equal earnings and equity, but one company may have fewer shares in circulation and therefore higher EPS ratio (Stickney et al, 2009). These disadvantages make EPS of limited use per se, however, it is a convenient tool for calculation of Price to earnings ratio described in the next paragraph.
Price to earnings ratio has become a widely accepted measure helping investors assess whether a certain stock is cheap or expensive. The rebuttable theory behind this ratio is that If the ratio is above historical averages, this would imply that shares are expensive with the fallout that future gains would likely be lower than normal, whereas the opposite is assumed if the ratio is lower than the historical average. The implication of this theory for investors is that shares with relatively high P/E ratios will likely go down in the future, and shares with relatively low P/E ratios will climb up (Byrne and Saibeni, 2000). However, a different view is provided by Pratt (2001) arguing that "the greater the optimism that investors are attaching to [a firm's] future income stream, the higher is its P/E ratio“(Pratt, 2001, p. 44).

Both ratios are calculated in the following table.

The table illustrates that while the average number of shares has not changed considerably in the three years period, EPS has decreased substantially from EUR 0,96 in 2011 down to EUR 0,41 in 2013 losing more than 50% of its value. This is clearly linked to the fall in net income which was explained in the profitability analysis. What is interesting here, is that while EPS has fallen, equity price remained relatively stable, with P/E ratio rising from 24 to almost 45 over the period. As Ross et al (2009, p. 285) explain, this could be attributed to the growth opportunities perceived by investors despite moderate current earnings. This illustrates that P/E ratio indicates the market's valuation of the company’s shares in relation to the company's earnings potential. However, only current earnings do not justify high or low price attributed by the market to stocks. Different studies have attempted to find out the factors, that could help explain the variation in E/P ratios. E.g. Ou and Penman (1989) have shown that careful financial statement analysis can be beneficial in predicting the increase or decrease in future earnings. Anderson and Brooks (2006) found that such factors as industry, size, and idiosyncratic (unique) effects have impact on P/E ratio.

The following table depicts dividend yield of JCDecaux shares, calculated as the [Dividend per share]/[share price]

Annual statements for all three years reviewed refer to the General Meetings’ decision to pay a dividend of €0.44 for each share. As known (e.g. Ross et al, 2010, p. 268) stock provides for two kinds of gains: in the form of dividends and the capital appreciation gain. The theory holds that dividend policies do not have impact on the value of the firm (Ross et al, 2010). However, as Financial Dynamics (2003) reported based on the market survey among professional investors, that over 60% of interviewees said the stocks of a
company that pays no dividend are “less attractive than those of
the company's peer group that do pay one”, while the size of the dividend is not very important.
In this case, one can see stable dividend policy of the company, i.e. EUR 0.44 is paid on each share and the yield is quite low hovering about 2%. The extant research shows that companies with high growth potential prefer to pay lower dividends, as they have good investment opportunities (Ross et al, 2010, p. 285). This empirical observation appears to be applicable to the case at hand.

Stock recommendation

This author’s personal investment objectives are to invest in shares of large, conservatively financed companies paying certain dividends and which have potential for growth. JCDecaux business is somewhat similar to that of utilities. The company invests in city infrastructure which is necessary even in crisis times. The second component is renting out panels on its infrastructure (such as bus shelters) to the advertising companies and agencies. Barring very deep recession, this author believes that advertising business will have its demand as competition increases and the companies will use advertising to promote their products. The company is managed by Decaux family who control about 70% of the stock. Uncommon for anglo-american stock market, this structure is more prevalent in the continental Europe including France and could provide stability in such vulnerable times, as it is more resilient to the pressure of investors for short term profits (Mallin, 2010).
As seen from the financial analysis, the debt level even after increase in 2013 to 23% of equity, is quite moderate. The company has enough liquidity both long term and short term to fare well during the recession.
A negative development is that P/E ratio has risen steeply over last three years to 44 as at December 31, 2013 as compared to the average for the industry of 23 (Yahoo, 2015) making stock looking quite expensive. However, the author believes that the market sees the growth potential of the company. Overall recommendation would be to hold on to the existing shares of the company.

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