CIMA F3 Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

This question examines loan covenant compliance, a topic covered in CIMA F3 under Debt Finance, Financial Risk, and Dividend Policy. Loan covenants are contractual restrictions imposed by lenders to protect their interests. Breaching a covenant can trigger penalties or loan repayment demands, so directors must assess compliance carefully using projected financial information.

The company has two covenants:

Interest cover must not fall below 4 times

Retained earnings for the year must not fall below $5.00 million

Step 1: Interest Cover Covenant

CIMA F3 defines interest cover as:

From the projections:

EBIT = $25.00 million

Interest = $3.20 million

Since 7.8 > 4, the company meets the interest cover covenant.

Step 2: Retained Earnings Covenant

Earnings after tax are projected at $15.26 million.

The most recent dividend per share is $0.10, and dividends are planned to increase by 8%:

With 100 million shares in issue:

Retained earnings for the year:

Since $4.46 million < $5.00 million, the company breaches the retained earnings covenant.

Conclusion (CIMA F3 Interpretation)

Interest cover covenant: Complied with

Retained earnings covenant: Breached

Under CIMA F3 guidance, directors must recognise that even when profitability appears strong, dividend policy can cause covenant breaches if distributions are excessive.

CIMA F3 emphasises that shareholders expect directors to focus on value creation after an acquisition, particularly in the areas that protect and enhance the cash flows and synergies that justified the deal. Following an all-cash acquisition, the target’s former shareholders have exited, so the acquirer’s shareholders will not prioritise tailoring dividends to meet the target shareholders’ preferences (B is not relevant). Also, the question states the acquisition has just been completed, so regulatory approval needed to complete the acquisition (C) is no longer a priority stage item. What matters immediately is executing post-deal integration to secure the expected benefits. First, directors must ensure integration and retention of key employees from the acquired firm (A), especially in service/knowledge businesses where people drive client relationships and operational capability. Second, they must protect revenues by retaining the acquired firm’s key customers (D); losing customers can destroy acquisition value quickly. Third, they must deliver the deal logic by realising anticipated post-acquisition synergies (E), such as cost savings, higher capacity utilisation, cross-selling, and process improvements. These priorities align with F3’s post-merger integration focus: preserve the earnings base, then convert strategic fit into measurable synergy cash flows.

The company needs to raise $40 million via a rights issue.

Current share price = $10

Rights issue at a 20% discount, so issue price =

10×(1−0.20)=10×0.8=$810 \times (1 - 0.20) = 10 \times 0.8 = \$810×(1−0.20)=10×0.8=$8

Number of new shares needed:

New shares=40m8=5 million shares\text{New shares} = \frac{40\text{m}}{8} = 5\text{ million shares}New shares=840m​=5 million shares

There are currently 20 million shares in issue, so the rights issue ratio is:

New sharesExisting shares=520=14\frac{\text{New shares}}{\text{Existing shares}} = \frac{5}{20} = \frac{1}{4}Existing sharesNew shares​=205​=41​

So, shareholders will receive 1 new share for every 4 existing shares.