Prepare a report on the suitability of M&G PLC for an investor who wants to invest in a company that is financially sound and profitable

FTSE100 represents the top 100 companies listed on London Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalisation. Investors are often keen on knowing more about these companies so that they can invest in companies that are stable, profitable and can ensure good returns on their investments.
Prepare a report on the suitability of M&G PLC for an investor who wants to invest in a company that is:
a) financially sound and profitable &
b) has a good track record of governance and corporate social responsibility

Required:
1. Access the website of the allocated company and download latest three Annual Reports of the company.
2. First familiarise yourself with the aim and objectives of the company, the sector of the economy to which it belongs, nature of services/products it provides and main strategic goals.
3. Using an Excel sheet collect and input essential numerical information about the company and its financial performance
4. Use CORE framework of strategic ratio analysis to organise your overall analysis. To comment upon short to long term solvency of the firm you may use FCA framework as well.
5. Your analysis should also include comments upon whether the financial data supports achievement of strategic goals of the company. Also include a section on corporate governance and CSR related disclosures of the company.
6. In the conclusion you need to make a clear recommendation to a potential investor if the company is a good candidate for investment purpose or not.
7. All facts and claims should be supported by relevant references. Avoid using generic sites/blogs for referencing purpose. Only use high quality academic references (eg journal articles and peer reviewed publications with references, professional sources (eg government publications and/or websites, reputed magazines/newspapers eg Economist, Financial Times, regulators publications eg ICAEW, CIMA, ACCA, Big four accounting firms). Harvard referencing style should be complied with.
8. The report should be in the form of an academic research report of 3000 words with 10% +/- allowance.
There should be an abstract at the beginning of 250-300 words in addition to the main report (not included in the main word count)
Focus of the report should be on evaluating financial performance of the company so that potential investors can make an informed decision when choosing a company.

Any specific instructions:

The report should be in the form of MS Word document. Also submit the excel file with two sheets where one should contain all collected empirical data and second sheet should work out all ratios that are later used in the written report.
Further guidance on the marking scheme:
Structure:
The submitted work follows the recommended structure of a report. This includes an Abstract and proper sectioning of the written report with a sensible conclusion. Research evidence/discussion
If relevant empirical data has been collected for the company?
If relevant professional websites/publications have been consulted?
If relevant academic refereed articles have been accessed and used for enriching the analysis?
Critical analysis/application
Whether various viewpoints about using ratios for performance evaluation in general have been made use of when interpreting the performance of the company?
Whether previous published research has been made use of when analysing the performance of the company?
Whether possible reasons of good or bad performance have been considered to interpret performance of the company?
Whether comments about corporate governance and CSR given or not?
Whether informed comments about congruence between financial data/performance and strategic goals have been made or not?

Presentation
Language and formatting mistakes are not very noticeable and good use of charts/graphs
Good use of charts/info graphs

Referencing
All claims/facts supported by relevant references and high quality references ( such as refereed academic journals, professional bodies magazines, credible organisations’ websites and official publications, books, textbooks