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Friendly Cards Case Analysis

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Submitted By DMarie39
Words 3519
Pages 15
Investment Decisions
Summary of Facts
Friendly Cards, Inc. (first named Beaumont Greeting Card Co.) is a greeting card company started in 1978, in New York City by Wendy Beaumont. The company has experienced rapid growth, acquiring like companies and expanding its market base. The company became public through a stock offering at $3 per share. From an operational viewpoint, Friendly cards performed all production at its plant in Reading, Connecticut. Company sales include nearly 30% from Christmas sales, 25% from Valentines sales and about 45% from average every day and spring holiday sales. The company reports low returns expense, as packages sold to stores were not returnable. Overall operations are well monitored under a tiered organizational structure.
Wendy Beaumont, the company’s president is looking to further expand and has asked the advice of friend and financial consultant, Amy McConville to review a potential acquisition or partnership. The prospects will elevate some of the president’s concerns for financing. In her own words, Ms. Beaumont expressed that the cost of financing growth right now was high and Friendly Card's projects 20% growth over the next year and even more in subsequent years. Further stating, the company had never been without financing problems and had always been capital intensive relying on strong relations with its banks and suppliers in realizing success. Still, Friendly’s bankers have begun to feel uneasy regarding the company’s heavy reliance on debt capital to finance operations. The bank reminded the company they agreed to provide financing in 1986 with the expectations of Friendly Cards’ sales would decrease substantially in the future. The firm's liabilities/equity ratio had peaked to 5.2 in 1986, and was still a couple of years away from returning to historically lower ratios. As a result, the bank strongly

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