ACA Case Study 25 July 2018

How did everyone find it?

I think the Requirements was as expected, probably didn't write enough in REQ2 in relation to the membership/tickbox part.

Not to bad. how did you find the R3 calculation?

I literally just multiplied the average event revenue & costs etc by the 13 events and just spoke about the total revenue and GP/OP Margin etc.

Didn't know what else to do.

What about you?

I think for R3 you were supposed to estimate the loss of profit for closing the cinema down all day for conferences - question specifically wanted us to include the effect on catering too

I think for R3 you were supposed to estimate the loss of profit for closing the cinema down all day for conferences - question specifically wanted us to include the effect on catering too

True

It may well be that it just falls under a single diamond consistent with would you'd get for a sensitivity calc and tbh I'd be annoyed at that as I thought I did well to estimate it.. I know the calculations are supposed to be easy but what they provided was... well like 2 lines for an appendix?

My estimation was mainly using the 2018 figures for admissions, avg ticket price and catering revenue per admission. The AI told us that 66% of admission came on the weekend and the rest is spread evenly throughout the rest of the week (8.25%). I used that to derive the admissions for a weekday (being the tues/weds when it would be closed) and just worked it through with the margins in 2018.

Very similar thoughts. When I read the requirements initially I was fairly happy as they were exactly as expected and even in line some of the mocks we’d done- we’d practised a Grimsby Jewel issue and a Derby cinema!

However, there were some ‘funnies’ that were somewhat odd. The Tickbox discussion for R2 was just odd- no idea how much they wanted as there wasn’t a huge amount of info on Tickbox to allow us to give definitive anwers beyond some speculation and recommendations about upgrading, costs etc.

I found R3 tight as I somehow mismanaged my time and ended up rushing through it. I also found the calculation very minimal. We had practised a mock which had asked us to calculate lost profit on box office due to conferencing and for that we had much more data to use. The exam didn’t say much so I don’t think we could have done much without making assumptions. I did the same, multiplying by 13 but then also doubled it and discussed rolling out the conferencing for full 12 months and then multiplied that by 4 to look at a potential total across 4 cinemas. I ended up just focusing on the operating profit/margin as it was quite high given their actual margin had reduced quite a bit in R1.

The more I analyse it in my head though I’m convinced my R3 is too light so I’m not too optimistic about a pass to be honest. 🤦*♂️ But we’ve got this dreaded wait now....

I think the tickbox issue will of been for 2 boxes. On the basis of 2 for financial model and inputs, 2 for assumptions, 2 for evaluation of derby and 2 for conclusions and recommendations.

It appears that everyone has done something different for R3. I think the lost rev is correct as I think it was driving you towards the implications of closing the Nottingham cinema with Quantom opening there. It is a bit naughty by the examiners and in my opinion should of been made clearer. Hopefully the narrative I made will cover the lost box!

Hi All,

Just thought I'd weigh in on my experience.I am as I imagine most people are happy with Req 1 so I won't go into that much as it's likely the easiest of the 3 as is very numbers driven.

Req 2,- I messed up on the calc's a couple of times but think I got there in the end, If I remember rightly the Derby cinema produced a positive return that was under £100k, can't remember exact figure though.I don't think Tickbox was 2 whole box's. As the 3 requirements were, 'Derby Breakeven Calcs', 'Adequacy of Assumptions' & 'Student Membership Scheme' - I therefore imagine ticket box was just a couple of diamonds, along with Occupany Levels and the impact of the scheme overall.

I thought asking if Tickbox was Capable of doing what Sequin wanted was a bit of an odd question as there is no information available to state the capabilities of Tickbox.

Reg3 - I thought was the hardest, I did as above and multiplied everything by 13 and I think Op Profit Margin was 25% so then compared that to Fullword which was 15%, mentioned about loss of revenue from general customers.

For Strategic I mentioned, utilisation of cinema capacity, Jewel Catering Issues, Damage to brand from closing cinema to public, in line with strategic opportunity number 5? (Cant remember number)

For Business Trust - I spoke about local authority approval, contracts with Distributors, Late night noise to local community, Alcohol licenses.

Good to hear everyone else's thoughts.

Fingers crossed for everyone.

Hi All,

Just thought I'd weigh in on my experience.I am as I imagine most people are happy with Req 1 so I won't go into that much as it's likely the easiest of the 3 as is very numbers driven.

Req 2,- I messed up on the calc's a couple of times but think I got there in the end, If I remember rightly the Derby cinema produced a positive return that was under £100k, can't remember exact figure though.I don't think Tickbox was 2 whole box's. As the 3 requirements were, 'Derby Breakeven Calcs', 'Adequacy of Assumptions' & 'Student Membership Scheme' - I therefore imagine ticket box was just a couple of diamonds, along with Occupany Levels and the impact of the scheme overall.

I thought asking if Tickbox was Capable of doing what Sequin wanted was a bit of an odd question as there is no information available to state the capabilities of Tickbox.

Reg3 - I thought was the hardest, I did as above and multiplied everything by 13 and I think Op Profit Margin was 25% so then compared that to Fullword which was 15%, mentioned about loss of revenue from general customers.

For Strategic I mentioned, utilisation of cinema capacity, Jewel Catering Issues, Damage to brand from closing cinema to public, in line with strategic opportunity number 5? (Cant remember number)

For Business Trust - I spoke about local authority approval, contracts with Distributors, Late night noise to local community, Alcohol licenses.

Good to hear everyone else's thoughts.

Fingers crossed for everyone.

Just thought I’d let you all know, I’ve read two different tuition providers (both who specialise in case) thoughts on the paper. Interestingly they both have different views on R3.

1) is the view you should of calculated the lost BO & FD revenue.

2) is the examiner deliberately left any hint regarding the calculation of lost revenue from the exam as they didn’t want it calculated. With a more narrative emphasis on the numbers and a huge amount of operational and strategic points (potentially a whole box for the catering).

Interesting that even they both differ in there opinion in what you should do....