A skill any financial manager must have is to be able to find and understand financial information. Visit the websites of Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and Renault SA. Download their financial accounts for the most recent year. At first you may find it difficult to find these, but persevere because the information is there.

1 For each firm, look at its statement of financial position and record the following:

(a) Non-current assets

(b) Current assets

(c) Current liabilities

(d) Non-current liabilities.
Construct the balance sheet for each firm and calculate the value of shareholders’ equity.
What do the figures say about each company?
2 Visit the Yahoo! Finance website and find the share price of each firm. What does the share price history tell you about each company?
3 On Yahoo! Finance read the news for each company. What does the news tell you about the fortunes of each company?
4 Combining all the information, which company do you think is the best investment?
Explain.