...2 Face to face Interview Key attributes of face to face interview 1. Adaptability: One of the key attributes of face to face interview is adaptability. The interviewer can adapt their questions according to the respondent’s answers and can sought clarifications on any given topic. This gives the interviewer an opportunity to probe which is particularly important when the interviewer need clarification on particular research topic. The interviewer can ask further questions and request the interviewee to be more detailed and explicit during the face to face interview. For example for evaluation the highest growth industry in New Zealand economy, other than the structured questions on the industries in New Zealand, Alexander can further ask the board of directors questions such as their personal opinion on growing industries in New Zealand, future growth projects and investment industries. 2. Use of visual aid and other pros when needed. Face to face interviews give an opportunity to...
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...2011 Although New Zealand’s industrial sector has expanded vastly over twenty years, it still depends heavily on its extremely efficient agricultural sector. New Zealand is still profoundly reliant on on the primary sector with commodities accounting for half of total goods exports, and exports account for about one third of New Zealand’s GDP. The recession arose with a drought between 2007 and 2008 which led to lesser production of dairy products for the first half of 2008. Consumption and investment decelerated significantly due to high fuel and food prices, high interest rates and falling real estate prices. New Zealand was already at a shortcoming before the global financial crisis hit and by September of 2008 the economy only got worse. As of 2010 the unemployment rate floated around 6.8% and was lower than the OECD average of 8.6% and was ranked 12th of 27 OECD countries with standardized unemployment rates. New Zealand is a leader in economic freedom due to its diversified and modern economy, with high levels of prosperity and institutional strengths that include strong protection of property rights and an efficient legal structure. In spite of the recent stress on the economy, New Zealand remained relatively unharmed, with public debt, increased by crisis spending and now above 20% of GDP, remains moderate compared to other advanced countries. Trade is moderately open but do contain some non-tariff barriers like import restrictions, services market access barriers...
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...6th Section A [40 possible marks, 4 marks per question] The following questions are based on your reading of the chapter by Pirounakis from Real Estate Economics, A Point-to-Point handbook. They are intended to test your understanding, critical thinking and writing ability as well as application to the current residential real estate market. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. List four mundane considerations buyers of residential real estate consider. Why is pricing real estate ‘guesswork with a little science added’? When the affordability index drops does property become more or less affordable? Explain your answer. Describe the nature of ‘derived and authentic demand’ in relation to Auckland residential houses. Why is supply of land said to be inelastic? How does the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP) aim to increase the elasticity (produce imperfect inelasticity) of land in the city? Why do some commentators question the meaningfulness of talking about a single housing market? Explain and give examples in your answer. How can real estate function as an asset and be compared with other types of assets like shares, bonds, and money for example? List three channels through which real estate interacts with the wider or macro economy. One characteristic of real estate is high transaction costs. Explain what this refers to. 1 Section B (30 possible marks, 2 for each calculation [10 in total]...
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...ASSESSMENT 1: BUSINESS REPORT Cover page (Design your own cover page for this assignment) Table of Contents (headings and page numbers) 1. Introduction (purpose of the report and an outline of the content of this report) 2. Background: (name of company, size of company, what industry it is in, what it produces, company structure, markets, competitive advantage). Briscoe Group Limited (BG) is one of the greatest retail organizations in New Zealand working its capacity over 150 years . The Group works roughly 79 stores all through New Zealand inside of two retail areas, home product and donning merchandise, under the three brand names Briscoes Home product, Living and Giving and Rebel Sport, which together created deals income in the Group's most recent money related year in abundance of $507 million with having its home office situated in Auckland; New Zealand. The organization's item portfolio incorporates home decorations, washroom and room items, pads and floor covers, indoor and outside furniture, cultivating frill, wearing products, wellness related types of gear, donning attire, footwear and other related stock. Notwithstanding that, the organization gives different administrations including home delivery, blessing card plans, guarantee upkeep administrations and eCommerce.(briscoes, 2015). 3. Environmental Analysis 3.1 Macro-environmental (PESTLE) analysis What is the macro-environment? What is PESTLE analysis...
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...For New Zealand’s democracy, the media plays a central role. Ideally, the media’s role is to inform the public with in-depth, accurate information about political decision-making, propose a forum for the exchange of opinions, experiences and perspectives, and act as a watchdog against the misuses of power. From both National to International level, these functions help the public to understand complex social and political issues. The media may act in a democratic role, but their ability to fulfil this role is affectedby many things such as laws protecting freedom of expression. The media had much greater freedom of expression in the 2000s. Though this was limited by a number of laws introduced to protect other rights like The Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993 had provisions designed to avert discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, gender or disability. Legal recognition of the media’s crucial watchdog role is found in the Evidence Act 2006, which banned the media from publishing anyone’s name who were granted name suppression in court. (McQuail, 1992,pg 123) The media is also affected by the media accessing government information. The Official Information Act 1982 is an essential tool for the media. This act allows all official informationto be made available upon request unless there is a genuine reason for withholding it. Journalists have complained that officials and ministers use a range of methods to delay or refuse such releases of information...
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...diversified property groups operating in Australia and overseas and can be regarded as competitors of each other. The main market they operate in is dominated by the Westfield Group. Both companies are headquartered in Sydney and are well established in their industries. Stockland Group Limited background (SGP) SGP, founded in 1952, engages in the development and management of real estate projects in mainland Australia, the UK, and New Zealand. The statutory profit for 2013 financial year was $104.6 million (2012: $487 million) after the Group had made numerous negative property revaluations and write downs during the year. Regardless of the write downs the underlying profit (a non IFRS measure used by the directors) for 2013 was $495 million but even this was down 27% from 2012 ($676 million). The largest contributor to the underlying profit was commercial property at $482 million profit. Commercial property comprises retail (primarily shopping centres), office and industrial with retail being by far the largest contributor to profit for 2013 at $324 million. The overall profit as a return on equity had declined from 8.2% (2012) to 6% (2013). SGP has $11.4 billion (2013) of real estate assets of which $5.5 billion are in retail. Debt equity ratio is high at 37.03 and current ratio 0.43 GPT Group background (GPT) GPT, founded 1971, operates as a diversified real estate investment property trust. It invests in retail, commercial, hotel, industrial, and office park properties. GPT has...
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...11/14 Financial planning project VSPGX: 343 stocks, mostly invested in tech. incorporation such as MS, Apple, Google, etc. Reason we pick Vanguard S&P 500 GR Index for large: we want be active fund when market is passive and opposite way. Since market is doing good, we would use passive fund. When market is bad we would not stay on passive fund and go out for active which has good sense in stock picking and beat the market. Currently US market S&P 500 is in good shape(Figure X), S&P value fund portfolio since economy is in good shape. -> since this fund is ETF there is no restriction in minimal payment(just like stock) and use expense ratio on website because that 0.08% is for listed minimal payment($5M) Standard deviation 1Y Weekly = 11.23 Standard deviation 1Y monthly = 8.92 VSPVX: 337 stocks, mostly invested in Exon mobile/GE/AT&T = utility companies, resource(gas) companies and banks -> they don’t ear/lose too much so they are less volatile Standard deviation 1Y Weekly = 10.18 Standard deviation 1Y monthly = 8.29 Mid-cap -> active fund Hartford midcap Fund-A HFMCX : sharpe ratio was 1.22 which determines the absolute sharpe ratio, manager started on last date of 1997, fund turnover is 38% which is pretty low yet still actively managed. Small-cap -> active fund Alphamark Small Cap Growth: AMSCX, has 0.25% 12b 1 *big question to answer! Why we use absolute Sharpe ratio with annual term instead of shorter term(1Y-M)...
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...Equity Fund Stock mutual funds are principally categorized according to company size, the investment style of the holdings in the portfolio and geography: Size is determined by a company's market capitalization, while the investment style, reflected in the fund's stock holdings, is also used to categorize equity mutual funds. Stock funds are also categorized by whether they are domestic (U.S.) or international. These can be broad market, regional or single-country funds. There are so-called "specialty" stock funds that target business sectors such as healthcare, commodities and real estate. The basic feature of unit trust investment is a form of collective investment that allows investors with similar investment objectives to pool their saving, and invested in a portfolio of securities managed by investment professional. We can classify 5 mains categories of unit trust funds in Malaysia: 1)Equity fund: The major portions of equity fund portfolios are shares of listed companies. It's available in the market with higher risk-higher return to those with lower risk-lower returns: ·Aggressive growth fund - generally invests in companies with higher capital growth, but with higher risk. ·Index fund- normally the return will closely resemble the performance of the stock market index, both in terms of risk and return. ·Income fund - the fund will invest primarily in stocks that earn significant dividend income, rather than companies that are expected to pay...
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...and Objectives 4 ii. Project Aim 4 iii. Objectives 4 iv. Background 5 v. Project Rationale 6 2. Issues Identification 6 i. Solution 7 3. Analysis 7 1. Market Segmentation 7 2. Business Segment 8 a. Income Segmentation 8 b. Brand Concentration 8 3. Pricing Strategies 9 4. Recommendations 9 i. Urban Eco-shack vs. Standard Eco-shack 10 ii. Other Pricing Approaches 10 5. Conclusion 11 6. References 12 1. Eco-Shack Concept/Executive Summary Today, the world is not much distanced as it was several years ago due to several innovative and technological advancements by the advance countries and its counterpart around New Zealand. Now, it is comparatively easier to reach and enter into any country through internet and extranet without any particular issue and problem for the sake of achieving typical business objectives. Due to inventions in the field of logistics, companies are getting advanced and national at a very fast speed. The distance from country to country has been decreased due to advance infrastructure facilities such heavy shipments and cargo. The concept of mass marketing or national marketing has been emerged very rapidly within past few years. Companies are not restricted to local market and turnover techniques but they are also focusing different markets of the world these days for the sake of achieving several beneficial targets and milestones. The shift into other countries is due to the realization and investment...
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...CONTENTS TOPIC SINGAPORE PAGE NO 1. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION IN SINGAPORE 3-4 2. UNDERSTANDING THE SINGAPORE TAX SYSTEM 4-6 3. TAX RATES 6 4. TAX ADMINISTRATION AND COMPLIANCE 7 NEWZEALAND 5. TAXATION IN NEWZEALAND 7-8 6. INCOME SUBJECT TO TAX 8-9 7. TAX RATES 9-11 8. TAX ADMINISTRATION AND COMPLIANCE 11 1. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION IN SINGAPORE The scope of taxation in Singapore 1. Income tax is charged on income from an employment exercised in Singapore and on any income accrued in or derived from Singapore, regardless of the tax residency of the individual. The taxability of employment income depends on where the services are performed, not where the payment is made or where the employer is resident. 2. With effect from 1 January 2004, income derived from sources outside Singapore, even if received in Singapore (except for income received through a partnership in Singapore), is exempt from Singapore tax. The tax year 3. In Singapore, an individual's income of the preceding calendar year ('tax year') is assessed to tax in the following calendar year ('Year of Assessment'). For example, if an individual commenced his or her employment in Singapore in April 2010, the employment income derived in the period April to December 2010 will be chargeable to tax in Year of Assessment (“YA”) 2011. Methods of calculating tax 4. Resident individuals are entitled to personal...
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...local food hygiene bylaws, the Food Amendment Act 1997 (No 2), and the Fair Trading Act 1987. The best first points of contact are your local Council, and local Public Health Service. Contacts: • Local Government (Council) - www.lgnz.govt.nz Requirements - eg. zoning, premises, health, food preparation and storage, and fire. New premises require a Code of Compliance Certificate. All food premises requires a Certificate of Registration prior to food being manufactured, prepared, packed, stored or sold, which is approved after inspection of the premises by a Health Officer. The Christchurch City Council has a number of guides available on www.ccc.govt. nz/health for various types of food businesses. • Local District Liquor Licensing Authority If you are selling, supplying or allowing the consumption of alcohol on your premises you will need to obtain both a Liquor Licence and a Managers Licence. These can be applied for at your local government authority. • New Zealand Food Safety Authority - www.nzfsa.govt.nz/processed-food-retail-sale/ index.htm The processed food and retail sale section of this site outlines the management of the safety of food sold in New Zealand, containing information on food safety programmes and exemption. • Ministry of Consumer Affairs - (04) 474 2750 -...
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...China real estate: a tale of two China-centric REITs Michael C.H. Quek and Seow Eng Ong Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapore, Singapore Abstract Purpose – There is currently no real estate investment trust (REIT) listed in China. As of date, only two REITs – GZI REIT of Hong Kong and CapitaRetail China Trust (CRCT) of Singapore – have securitised Chinese property assets. The purpose of this paper is to examine the driving forces and the obstacles surrounding China REITs, and evaluate REIT securitisation as an exit strategy for Chinese properties. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses the performance of the two cross-border REITs and investigates whether REITs holding Chinese assets outperform other listed REITs. Research limitations/implications – CRCT outperforms GZI REIT as well as some of the other Singapore REITs, while GZI REIT ranked second lowest in terms of price performance when compared to other Hong Kong REITs. The limited history of CRCT suggests that when a well-structured REIT holding Chinese assets can perform very well. We also infer that performance is closely linked to portfolio composition and diversification, growth story and originator reputation. Originality/value – The study shows that there is indeed a strong local demand for China REITs, and that REITs can provide an alternative source of real estate financing for Chinese developers and promote a better regulated Chinese real estate market. Keywords Real estate, Investments...
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...results, which need to be verified and evaluated intermittently. The report finds that HGL had created a sustainable competitive growth for over 50 years by leveraging its internal resources and capabilities. However, with new international players in market, the sustainable advantage is no longer sufficient to maintain that growth, the results of which are presented in terms of lowered company, brand and profits value. The report makes recommendations to company to take explore further markets, market segments and better leverage their brands. The report also suggests to the board to have a coherent and consistent brand image – all giving the same message. This report forms the basis of strategies to be derived and implemented. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 1. Background / Introduction 3 2. Company Vision, Mission and Strategy 4 3. Company Analysis (1200) 5 3.1 Macro Environment Analysis 5 3.1.1 Does the industry offer attractive opportunities for growth? 5 3.1.2 What Kind of Competitive forces are industry members facing and how strong is each force? 5 3.1.3 What factors are driving changes in industry and what impact will these changes have on competitive intensity and industry profitability? 6 3.1.4 What market positions do industry rivals occupy? 6 3.1.5 What strategic moves are rivals likely to make? 7 3.1.6 What are the key factors for competitive success in industry? 7 3.1.7 Does industry offer good prospects for attractive...
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...Non-Customers 13 Strategic Canvas – SMSF 14 3 Keys to Success: Tagline, Focus and Differentiation 14 Option 1 14 VRIO 15 Option 2 15 VRIO 15 Appendix 17 Industry Analysis Charts 17 Porters 5 Forces Analysis Detail 20 Westpac Strategic Priorities 22 Material issues 23 Executive Summary Westpac Bank is Australia’s first Bank, founded in 1817 and is currently one of the “big four” group of lending banks in Australia. Listed on the stock exchange in 1970, Westpac has a history of acquisitions, notably the recent (2008) purchase of St George, which contributes 19% of Westpac’s Cash Earnings. Westpac has a market capitalisation of $76.5 billion in an industry with an overall value of $208.6 billion, or roughly 10% of Australia’s GDP. The financial services industry in Australia is an Oligopoly, with the big four banks accounting for over 80% of the market. A mature market, players are converging, and the industry is forecast to grow at around 8% year on year to 2018. Competition in this industry is fierce, though there is also speculation that there may be significant price signaling amongst the “big four” in particular. Westpac’s strengths, shown in a McKinsey 7S analysis, lie in its ability to innovate, deliver superior technological solutions, its multi-brand strategy that also encompasses the Local Branch strategy, and its ability to provide bundled services that appeal to a wide customer base. From our analysis, we conclude that Westpac is in a unique position...
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...trends affecting the macro-environment of the industry that might transfer onto Michael Hill International Ltd as well as, their competitors in the industry. The main strategic issues for the industry will be identified and their implications on Michael Hill International Ltd will be outlined/described. Company Overview Background of Michael Hill International Limited In 1979, Michael Hill opened his first signature jewellery store (Michael Hill Jewellery) in Whangarei and entered into the New Zealand jewellery industry. Fast-forward 33 years, Michael Hill International Limited together with its 13 subsidiaries, has become one of the largest manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of speciality jewellery collections in Oceania and North America. Based in Brisbane, Michael Hill International limited owns the brand ‘“Michael Hill” and has been listed on NZX 50 since 1987. Michael Hill International Limited has over 240 retail stores and 2000 employees in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. The group pride themselves on being a highly customer focused...
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