MARSH & MCLENNAN COMPANIES, INC.: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial

MARSH & MCLENNAN COMPANIES, INC.: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis

Product Type: Market Research Report
Published by: Icon Group International, Inc.
Published: November 2002
Product Code: R307-20718

Description

MARSH & MCLENNAN COMPANIES, INC. is it financially competitive? There is no absolute answer to such a question. How does this firm's asset structure vary compared to global benchmarks? Does it hold more cash and other short term assets, or does it concentrate its assets in physical plant and equipment? On the liability side, does it have a higher percent of payables compared to the benchmarks, or does it hold a higher concentration of long term debt? The structure of the income statement is more telling. Does the firm have a relatively higher costs of goods sold, operating costs, or income taxes compared to its global benchmarks? Are their returns on equity higher? Are profit margins greater? Are inventories held longer? The report does so by going beyond traditional analyses by considering companies competing in the same or similar industrial classification at a global level. The goal of this report, therefore, is to assist consultants, financial managers, strategic planners, and corporate officers in gauging indicators of a company's financial structure compared to firms competing or participating in the same economic sector, at the global level. This report is not about whether a particular company or industry has performed well or poorly in the past or will do so in the future. With the globalization of markets, greater foreign competition, and the reduction of entry barriers, it becomes all the more important to benchmark a company's financial indicators against other firms on a worldwide basis. Doing so, however, is not an obvious task. First, one needs to find firms competing in the same sector, but not necessarily competing directly with the company in local markets. These firms should not be perceived, therefore, to be direct competitors to the company in question, but simply those that have been classified by various sources (e.g. EDGAR or similar foreign filings), as competing to serve customers in the same link of the value chain, or broad industrial classification, as identified by SIC, NAICS or similar codes. Second, given the international nature of the task, one needs to control for exchange rate volatility. Finally, one needs use comparable financial standards. This report overcomes these issues and gives full financial benchmarks vis-a-vis worldwide competitors who are present in the same narrow industrial classification. Benchmarks cover assets, liabilities, income and ratios. Since our reports are printed on demand, the statistics reported are for the latest quarter and are the most up to date available (4 reports are produced each year). Each report provides over 100 statistics and 40 graphs to the reader. This report is on MARSH & MCLENNAN COMPANIES, INC., NEW YORK, USA.

Excerpt: Though we heavily rely on historical performance, the figures reported in this report are not historical but are forecasts and projections for the coming fiscal year. The forecasts are updated quarterly. This particular report was updated in the last quarter. In order to maintain comparability over time and across companies and countries, we use an index system. In the case of a firm's assets, we treat the total assets as equaling 100, irrespective of the value of the local currency. All other assets are then calculated as a percent from total assets. In this way, the structure of the firm's assets can be easily interpreted and compared with international benchmarks. For liabilities, total liabilities and equity are indexed to equal to 100. For the income statement, total revenue is indexed to equal 100, and all other figures are calculated as a percent of these figures. Ratios are projected using raw financial statistics and, as ratios, are therefore comparable. The source(s) for the various raw statistics include public filings, corporate releases, and various other data sources.
Given a company's financial structure, the resulting figures are benchmarked across "leading competitors". In choosing the leading competitors, Icon Group chooses only those firms with sound financial situations or those not undergoing radical restructuring, or where random volatility, mergers, or bankruptcy affects financial performance.
Since the calculation of competitors' benchmarks proceeds in a similar fashion, but are aggregated across all competitors, one can directly conduct a financial gap analysis. Here, Icon Group graphically reports, for each part of the financial statement, the larger gaps that the firm has vis-à-vis the leading competitors. A gap need not be a bad sign. Rather, it is simply a substantial difference that might merit further attention or signal a firm's relative strength or weakness for the coming fiscal year. Again, all figures are projections, so due caution is required

Ticker: MMC

Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY 1.1 What does this report cover? 1.2 Methodology 1.3 Limitations and Extensions 2 ASSET STRUCTURE: 2000 2.1 Asset Structure: Benchmarks 2.2 Large Gaps to Competitors: Assets 3 LIABILITY STRUCTURE: 2000 3.1 Liability Structure: Benchmarks 3.2 Large Gaps to Competitors: Liabilities 4 INCOME STRUCTURE: 2000 4.1 Income Structure: Benchmarks 4.2 Large Gaps to Competitors: Income 5 RATIO STRUCTURE: 2000 5.1 Ratio Structure: Benchmarks 5.2 Large Gaps to Competitors: Ratios 6 DISCLAIMERS, WARRANTEES, AND USER AGREEMENT PROVISIONS 6.1 Disclaimers & Safe Harbor 6.2 Icon Group Ltd. User Agreement Provisions

Ordering and More Information

Price and Delivery Options

MindBranch has been the leading provider of industry and investment research from more than 550 independent research firms since 1992. With over 90,000 market research reports, MindBranch is your trusted source of competitive business intelligence.