A. What are the three firms from the list which most interest you, and why? What sector and industry is each of them

in?

B. For the industries each of your three companies is in, what is your outlook (positive, neutral, or negative) for each of

those industries, and what criteria are you using?

C. What characteristics, conditions, forces, influences and trends do you see in the industries of your three companies?

How else do you consider the similarities or differences among these industries? What would you include in an an

industry comparison for the industries of your three companies?

D. As an analyst, you will need to develop a list of peer companies for a firm you are analyzing (please note, you would

find different peers for each of the three firms). What peer companies would you use as a comparison to each of

your three firms? Why did you choose the peer companies you did?

E. For each of the three companies you chose from the list, what is the composition of their sales, and the proportion

of revenue components? How did their revenue behave during the last five years, and why?

F. For each of the three companies you chose, how has their operating income and operating margins behaved? How

would you go about developing a model of their cost structure -- what are the key costs to understand? How would

you quantify & scale these key costs?

G. For each of the three companies you chose, how have interest, tax and non-cash costs affected their net income?

Were there any significant non-operating elements on their income statements (e.g. impairments, losses/gains from

disposition of assets, etc.)? How do these non-operating items fit into your beliefs about future performance of

these companies?

H. For each of the three companies you chose, what has been their investment in long-term operating assets in the last

five years? How would you quantify & scale the amounts?

1. For each of the three companies you chose, what are the specific elements of net working capital?

J. For each of the three companies you chose, how has their net working capital behaved in the last five years? How

would you quantify & scale the movement of the net working capital?