You have just received the following email:
From: William Seaton, Director of Finance
To: Finance Manager
Subject: Oil reserves
Hi,
This email arrived from the Head Geologist earlier today. I am concerned that many of our colleagues understand very little other than rock formations and drilling reports. They certainly misunderstand accounting issues. I have already had some very confused discussions with the other members of the Board.
I need a very clear report from you that I can circulate to the other Board members. I am not particularly interested in the technical accounting rules. I do not think that you necessarily require an accounting standard to tell you that a particular disclosure is misleading.
I need your report to cover the following:
* Should we make a public announcement of this information? I would like a clear indication of the implications for our relationship with our various stakeholders AND the ethical issues that you feel are relevant.
* What are the implications for our share price? I would like your analysis to consider the factors that will indicate how our share price will change upon the announcement.
Thanks
William
The email referred to above can be found by clicking on the Reference Materials button.

Daily Gazette
Draft story for comment
The singer, the forester and the tax adviser
Popular singer Barry Crauder is regarded as one of our more financially-aware personalities. He works hard, releasing at least one new album every year and serving as a judge on a popular talent show. He has a reputation for investing this income wisely, choosing to save for his future rather than squandering on the trappings of the show business lifestyle.
Crauder's popularity was severely damaged when it emerged that he pays little or no tax on the investment income derived from his portfolio of investments. That is because he has used one of the few remaining tax loopholes, namely investment in forestry. He owns significant areas of forestry in the far North of Marland. We estimate his earnings from those investments to exceed M$800,000 every year and yet he has not paid a single Cent in tax on that income since he first invested in forestry ten years ago. In contrast, a typical fan who earns the national average wage of M$28,000 every year will pay approximately M$7,000 in tax.
So, could we all invest in forestry? Well, not unless we can afford it. I posed as a wealthy business entrepreneur and approached several leading tax advisers. Most were interested in helping me to invest a seven figure sum to avoid tax, but warned that saving tax could be expensive in terms of fees and commissions.
Four firms recommended forestry as the ideal investment. All recommended Wodd, with whom all four claimed to conduct "significant business". They said that a typical client would give Wodd a bank draft and leave the purchase and subsequent management to Wodd in return for a fee. Most clients had never even seen the forests that they own and none ever need to make a management decision concerning the growth or sale of timber.
Sadly, investing in forestry is a rich person's pursuit. I was warned that companies such as Wodd are unlikely to entertain a potential client whose initial investment does not run into the tens of millions of M$.
Please address any response to Sonia Jones, care of the Daily Gazette news desk, as quickly as possible.

Six months have passed since you briefed William Seaton, Director of Finance on the relationship between Slide and Fouce Oil.
You have been called into William Seaton's office:
"We had a visit from the Chief Executive Officer of Fouce Oil yesterday. We had not received any prior notice of the purpose of the visit and assumed that he simply wished to make a courtesy call while he was visiting Fouce Oil's subsidiary in this country. Instead, he came to initiate discussions over a strategy of collaboration on oil exploration.
Rather than explain things myself, please read the memorandum of understanding that he has asked us to sign. It is self-explanatory.
Once you have read the memorandum, I would like you to email me your thoughts on the following:
* The suitability of this proposal for Slide.
* The likelihood that Fouce Oil's strategic interests will clash with our own.
* The strategic risks that are likely to arise because of this arrangement.
* The manner in which this strategic relationship should be communicated to the stock market.
I realise that this is a challenging request, but I need your response quickly because we need to respond to Fouce Oil." The Memorandum of Understanding can be found by clicking on the Reference Materials button.

Four weeks have passed since your encounter with the Chairman. The directors of both companies were informed of the proposal to merge two weeks ago and the public was informed two days ago.
You have received the following email from Marcus Svenson, Finance Director:
From: Marcus Svenson, Finance Director
To: Senior Finance Manager
Subject: Merger negotiations
Hi,
Please see the attached table and also a comment that I downloaded from a Wodd shareholder's blog, showing the market capitalisations for Wodd and Darrell both before and after the merger announcement.
If I am reading this correctly, it would appear that we are suffering at the hands of Darrell because the market believes that it is getting more of the benefit from the merger. This is before the terms of the merger have even been announced.
I need you to do two things:
Please draft a formal response to Market Blogger's post. We will insert this into his blog as a formal response from Wodd's Board and we will also email it to all shareholders.
Please draft an outline strategy for negotiating with Darrell's Board. Clearly, I want Wodd's shareholders to get the best possible deal out of this merger.
Marcus
Reference Material: