For each of the following questions, (1) cut and paste the appropriate paragraph(s) from the Accounting Standards Codification to answer the question and (2) give the full citation for each paragraph.

1.      Company A, a calendar-year public company, acquired common shares of Company B in 2018 as an investment. The investment does not give Company A control or significant influence over Company B. Company B is a private company and its shares are rarely bought or sold. How should Company A account for its investment in Company B?

2.      Company A acquired an asset that qualifies for interest capitalization. What interest rate or rates should the company apply to the weighted-average-accumulated expenditures to determine the appropriate amount of interest to capitalize?

3.      Company A is lessee on a lease that qualifies as a capital lease. What interest rate should Company A use to calculate the present value of the minimum lease payments. Company A has not elected to early adopt ASC 842.

4.      Company A holds a financial instrument that is not a derivative financial instrument but contains a separate financial instrument that is a derivative financial instrument. Under what circumstances must Company A account for the two financial instruments separately?

5.      Company A sponsors a defined-benefit pension plan that creates pension gains and/or losses each year. How do these pension gains and/or losses affect the calculation of the net periodic pension cost (pension expense)?

Read the following scenario and answer the question in 5-10 sentences.

You are the CEO of a small company that sells transportation and logistics software. Your company has not been doing well because of competition from larger rivals. You learn of a lucrative opportunity to sell licenses of your software to the Lackria Department of Transportation, a government agency of the nation of Lackria. Closing the deal could save your company from bankruptcy. In an impulsive moment, you meet with a Lackrian government minister and offer her ownership of a luxury lakeside home in exchange for a guaranteed software contract with the Lackrian government. The minister refuses your offer and asks you to leave her office. The next day you regret your decision. Discuss any possible violations of white collar laws.

Presented below is the comparative balance sheet for Wildhorse Inc., a private company reporting under ASPE, at December 31, 2021, and 2020:

Prepare a cash flow statement for the year using the direct method.

Marin Company owes $225,000 plus $20,200 of accrued interest to Headland State Bank. The debt is a 10-year, 10% note. During 2020, Marin’s business deteriorated due to a faltering regional economy. On December 31, 2020, Headland State Bank agrees to accept an old machine and cancel the entire debt. The machine has a cost of $317,000, accumulated depreciation of $174,350, and a fair value of $202,000.

Prepare journal entries for Marin Company and Headland State Bank to record this debt settlement. (If no entry is required, select "No Entry" for the account titles and enter 0 for the amounts. Credit account titles are automatically indented when amount is entered. Do not indent manually.)

eTextbook and Media

List of Accounts

How should Marin report the following in its 2020 income statement?

eTextbook and Media

List of Accounts

Assume that, instead of transferring the machine, Marin decides to grant 12,000 shares of its common stock ($10 par) which has a fair value of $202,000 in full settlement of the loan obligation. If Headland State Bank treats Marin’s stock as a trading investment, prepare the entries to record the transaction for both parties. (If no entry is required, select "No Entry" for the account titles and enter 0 for the amounts. Credit account titles are automatically indented when amount is entered. Do not indent manually.)

The following information has been extracted from the financial statements of a company. Use it to answer the 4 questions that follow it. When answering the questions (filling in the blanks), DO NOT use dollar signs, USE commas to separate thousands, DO NOT use parenthesis to denote negative numbers, USE the negative sign in front of first digit for negative numbers. Round to the nearest dollar.

1. What is the Net Cash Flow (NFC) for 2020?

2. What is the Investment in Gross Fixed Assets for 2020?

3. What is the investment in net operating working capital (Investment NOWC) for 2020?

4. What is the Free Cash Flow (FCF) for 2020?

The following information has been extracted from the financial statements of a company. Use it to answer the 4 questions that follow it. When answering the questions (filling in the blanks), DO NOT use dollar signs, USE commas to separate thousands, DO NOT use parenthesis to denote negative numbers, USE the negative sign in front of first digit for negative numbers. Round to the nearest dollar.

1. What is the Net Cash Flow (NFC) for 2020?

2. What is the Investment in Gross Fixed Assets for 2020?

3. What is the investment in net operating working capital (Investment NOWC) for 2020?

4. What is the Free Cash Flow (FCF) for 2020?

Increasing Student Enrollment Proposal Case The chancellor of a local private university is looking for ways to increase enrollment at his University and circulated a request for a proposal to that effect. In response, the vice president of admissions submitted the following summary proposal. She wishes to enter into a memorandum of understanding with four Universities in the United Kingdom as part of an exchange program. She promises that their earned credits from their Universities will count towards graduation at her University. The University will guarantee their graduation on time if they take and successfully pass courses being offered in her university's various programs. She proposes that the action will earn the university minimum of five hundred thousand ($500,000.00) dollars per year for the next (3) three years, a fifty (50%) percent return. However, the university must invest 1,000,000.00 pounds starlings initially, which it does not have at hand. The exchange rate is .89 per $1.00. The accounting department of the university believes that the $500,000.00 annual revenue is possible. The finance department analysis indicates that the university can raise the needed one million (+#1,000,000.00) pounds one-time investment at a cost of 12 percent annual rate based on the university's credit rating.

1. Base on your understanding of time value of money, should the Board of Directors of the University approve this proposal (support your decision with computations)?

2. What is the actual return on this proposal (show your computations)?

3. Add any other explanation to support your conclusion with facts using what you learned from this course and any other alternative methods.

You would like to study the weight of students at your university. Suppose the average for all university students is 159 with a SD of 27 lbs, and that you take a sample of 31 students from your university.

a) What is the probability that the sample has a mean of 160 or more lbs?
probability =

b) What is the probability that the sample has a mean between 164 and 167 lbs?
probability =

Singh Song Pte Ltd had an opening cash balance of $40, 000 as at 1st June 2020.
Budgeted sales were as follows:
$
May 2020 80,000
June 2020 90,000
July 2020 75,000
August 2020 75,000
Receipts from sales:
The company allows a cash discount of 2% if payment is made within the month of
sales and 1%discount if payment is made in the month following the sale. It is estimated
that 50% of the accounts receivable pay within the month of the sale, and a further 50%
pay in the month following the sale.
Purchases are expected to be 30% of the sales value. Purchases are paid for 1
month after sales. The trade supplier allows a 2% discount for all payment made
on time.
Salaries have been set at $30,000 per month and payable at the end of the month.
Overheads are set at $10,000 per month. The overheads are paid for in the
month incurred. Overheads include depreciation of $2,000 per month.
Renovations to the premises are to be undertaken in June 2020 for $100,000. This
will be paid for in two equal monthly installments starting in June 2020.
The owner withdraws cash of 6,000 monthly.

Required:
a) Prepare a Cash Budget for the business for each of the three months from
June to August 2020 showing the ending cash balance at the end of each
month.
b) Briefly explain the usefulness of preparing a cash budget.

INTODUCTION TO MARKETING

Based on the information provided in the case study, create an integrated marketing communication (IMC) for NOBU Hotels. Please include at least 4 promotional mix tools and describe the promotion/activity with sufficient details for each.

Traveling in Nobu Style: Converting Restaurant Patrons to Hotel Guests

The name “Nobu” is synonymous with an exceptional Japanese dining experience, perfected by chef Nobu Matsuhisa over a more than 30-year career. Matsuhisa, together with actor Robert De Niro and restaurateur Drew Nieporent, opened the first Nobu restaurant in 1994 and to date, there are now 38 Nobu restaurants worldwide.

But if you talk to Trevor Horwell, the CEO of Nobu Hospitality, Nobu represents much more than just a restaurant experience. It’s a true lifestyle brand that also encompasses a relatively small, but growing portfolio of luxury hotels, too — eight of which are open now, and eight more are in the pipeline.

Horwell’s primary focus as CEO is to continue to grow the Nobu Hotels brand and as he opens up diners’ eyes to the fact that cannot only eat at a Nobu but stay at one, too, he hasn’t forgotten the brand’s origins in the process.

“We don’t normally do a hotel unless we think that a Nobu Restaurant can do well in that location,” said Horwell. “That’s very important because what we want to do first and foremost is to make sure there is a draw for locals, and that really comes down to the Nobu Restaurant.” Horwell said the majority of his Nobu hotel restaurant diners — 80 percent on average — are local residents, not hotel guests. “It’s not like a tourist restaurant. We like to attract the locals. We want that built-in customer.”

“We are defined by the restaurant, in a way,” he said. “We play to our strengths. If you look at the hotel business today, the majority of hotels are suffering because they don’t lead with food and beverage. don’t have strong food-and-beverage concepts, and a lot of hotels are losing money. Today, we play to our strengths because that is one area that we do very, very well, and we bring in locals.”

The idea to launch Nobu Hotels, he said, came from the fact that when Nobu Restaurants were located inside of a hotel, they “were the draw for the hotel and we were bringing in customers.”

“If I only convert 5 percent of my customers in Nobu Restaurant to stay in our hotels, then at the end of the day, we’re filling out hotels. It’s not a tall order to do that, and you can do that very well and very quickly if you offer the right product.”

Nobu Hotels has the advantage of having built its brand over a 24-year period with its restaurants first, followed by the first Nobu hotel that opened within Caesars Palace Las Vegas in 2013.

“The first focus for us, really, is to expose the brand to our restaurant customers,” Horwell said. “We touch all types of Nobu customers. And we also provide instant identity. If you put ‘Nobu Hotel’ on a hotel, the word ‘Nobu’ says something and it attracts a certain type of customer.” Horwell said that, for example, when the first Nobu opened, the hotel had “more than one billion media impressions.”

So, what’s next for the brand, and how does Horwell plan to grow Nobu Hotels? He explained, “We’re not driven by reservations systems because we’re small. It isn’t as if we need a huge reservations system to fill a 400-room hotel. That’s why a lot of these corporations do well, because they have the reservations platform to fill the big hotels.” Nobu Hotels, by comparison, average anywhere from 100 to 150 rooms generally.

“The reason why those young lifestyle brands have emerged is because they’re like us. They are entrepreneurial, they’re unique because it’s a concept that’s come from the heart, from whoever is the original founder. But when it’s absorbed by a corporation, the whole thing changes. At the end of the day, the specialness is lost because then the corporation’s running it, and then, I think you lose what your original concept was all about. I think that’s the biggest issue.”

Horwell also doesn’t necessarily think of Nobu Hotels as occupying a place in luxury hospitality, instead referring to the brand as “special.”

“I look at our hotels not as luxury,” he said. “I look at them as special. I like us to be special, in each location we’re in. ‘Luxury’ is a word that’s used too much in terms of ‘everything is luxury today.’ For us, we’re ‘special.'”

“That’s why I’m saying, from a company perspective, we’re very entrepreneurial.

Today’s evolving luxury traveler is seeking “youthfulness” no matter what age they are, and they are “very curious and very adventurous. Because of that, it’s important for hospitality brands, Nobu included, to not just say they’re unique but to really offer unique experiences. He pointed to Nobu Ryokan Malibu in California as an example. The 16-room retreat overlooks the beach and is right by the ocean, and right next door to the Nobu Restaurant in Malibu. It becomes a destination, and that’s something Nobu wants to offer.

It’s also a different concept from what the other Nobu Hotels have. While Nobu Hotels are places where there’s an emphasis on bringing in the locals, the Ryokans are meant to be more private.

“The Ryokan is actually a place where people don’t want to necessarily be seen,” Horwell explained. “It’s a hideaway, a retreat. You can only book through a general manager and it’s a special place.” He added, “We will do more Ryokans, definitely, in locations that we think is right.”

A major focus for Nobu Hotels is to grow the company and the brand with the right talent and partners, as well as make sure that the Nobu Hotels brand is reaching the right consumers.

“The most important thing, from our perspective, is to build a relationship with our existing customers,” he said. “It’s about, first and foremost, on digital, working our databases. We like to do that through email, through a lot of channels. We just brought on a new head of digital. Capturing data is very, very important now, and that’s something that is a main focus and her team.”

“I think the main thing for us is the customer relationship management (CRM) because you can do so much with it,” he said. “You can know your customer. It’s one part of the business that we are heavily focused in in and we can extract a lot of information from that.”

In addition to beefing up its customer relationship management system, Nobu is also testing out a loyalty partnership, of sorts. The Nobu London Shoreditch joined Design Hotels last year, giving the property access to distribution on Design Hotels’ site, as well as a connection to the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program. Three Nobu hotels are also members of Leading Hotels of the World. “A lot of our customers aren’t driven by points,” he said. “When I travel, I don’t go for points. I want to stay in a hotel where I enjoy the staff, the food and beverage, the products — all of that — and I will pay a premium for it.”

Appendix A
Additional Information about NOBU

Nobu Hotels

"A Place to go and be seen"

By “wrapping” the concept of a luxurious boutique hotel around energized public spaces, Nobu Hotels creates powerful stages for shared experiences of excitement and escapism. Featuring the best of everything with imaginative new restaurants, high- energy bars, relaxing rejuvenation, distinctive service, remarkable retail and an air of celebrity, Nobu Hotels will afford guests and privileged owners the most exclusive entry into unparalleled experiences that lay at the crossroads of innovation and imagination.

Source:

Excerpted from ‘Nobu Hotels CEO on a Restaurant-First Approach to Hospitality’ by D. Ting. Skift – March 22, 2018. +Experts and image from Nobu restaurant and hotel website