About Hunting PLC
Hunting PLC is a company which manufactures components that form an integral part of the oil and gas mining industry as well as many others. The Britain based company mainly manufactures downhole tools in order to effectively extract the targeted hydrocarbons from the wells. Hunting’s story begins back in 1890 after the founder Charles Hunting spent several years travelling the globe researching the oil industry as it stood. His knowledge and research allowed him to build a great foundation in which to build a small empire upon. As every life story nothing is ever completely smooth sailing, Hunting faced the total decimation of their fleet during world war one forcing them to diversify their business in order to survive. Being the biggest and strongest is not the key to success, the key to success is one’s ability to adapt and change to the environments surrounding them. Further opportunities for diversification and adaptability came with the emergence of World War 2, plenty of new avenues and adventures arose during this time and new and emerging markets were tested. Not all the ventures that Hunting explored were successful, but it gave the business experience enough to know where to look for future opportunities by learning from past mistakes. It was during the second World War that Hunting became somewhat what it is today when oil was struck in Texas, this paved the way for a business with exceptional engineering skills to form an oil services company.
Fast forward 50 years the company had expanded to add lubricants, petroleum retailing and specialized products to their portfolio of products and services, in 1989 all the different Hunting businesses were merged and brought under the one umbrella ‘Hunting PLC’ and it is here it entered the new reality, ready to walk headfirst into the new millennium. The new millennium brought yet again another period of change and with it a breath of fresh air, the small empire has acquired several other businesses in order to expand their ability to offer a more inclusive product range for a wide variety of field operators across the oil and gas industry, Aerospace, government and defense industry, power generation including solar, commercial equipment, transportation as well as chemical and refining industries. Hunting PLC currently operates across 11 countries: boasting 31 operating sites and 14 distribution centers, 518 granted and pending patents while employing just shy of 2000 employees worldwide.
After looking into press releases and diving into the depths of google, it seems that Hunting PLC is largely quiet within the media itself with minimal media coverage. In recent years the only reported media releases have been regarding the company takeovers that Hunting has taken part in. The most recent information that was released was regarding share prices still slumping despite the forecast that the company will slide back into profitability this year. Looking into historical share prices, Hunting PLC reached the peak in May of 2018 with prices of 912.50 GBP, it reached its lowest point in 5 years in September of 2020 with 122 GBP; the current share price today (19/07/2022) is 201.88 GBP per share. The figure below displays the last 5 years share prices for Hunting PLC.
The video below is a podcast in which the CEO of Hunting PLC Jim John speaks about Hunting PLC, what it does, where it operates and discusses current operational performance of the business.
KCQs
Audit Approach
Audits are a necessary part of any business to form an accurate opinion of the information presented in the financial reporting of a company. Anything across a business can be audited from compliance matters all the way through to bookkeeping. After reading the summary of the audit approach it has became very clear to myself that I wasn’t sure I understood some of the terms and where they got their “measure” from. How many different audit approaches can you take? Materiality stumped me beyond belief, however I now understand it to be a concept of expensing the entire cost of something to a single financial year instead of using depreciation over the course of its life. This will assist in eliminating the risk of misleading information being provided on the surrounding the asset by simply expensing the entire cost of the asst at one time.
The Scope of the Audit
The scope of the audit encompasses 57 reportable units, the financial statements are a combination of all their data. Not every reportable unit is subject to the same scope as others, why would this be? I am assuming it would be the size and the nature of the units. Although some of them were not included for whatever reason, they are subject to other audits. The scope outlined the responsibilities of directors and the auditors during the entire audit process which is essential for the audit to be able to detect risks, financial misuse and accounting errors. Without clear direction and expectations laid out audits can be stretched out, take too long and things can get missed.
Income Statements & Balance Sheet
After first glance it seems as though the company ran at a loss of just over 87 million dollars, this is a significant reduction from the previous year which ran at a loss of just over 238 million dollars. It has always baffled me how any company can run with such large losses on a continuous basis. How is this possible? Where do the funds come from to pay bills and staff? The balance sheet however shows a significant amount of assets but current and non-current as well as a large amount of capital. The current liabilities vastly outweigh the non-current liabilities and however both are liabilities.
Favourite Blogs
1. Joseph Ludeman’s blog is my favourite blog. He has a similar story to my own and I understand and know what it is like to attempt study with children involved. While he is starting his journey and mine is coming to a close it will be a pleasure to try and support a fellow parent through their journey. His blog is nicely set out, easy to read and although his step 3 isn’t finished as of yet, I quite liked watching the video and reading he links he posted about his business. - Home | Gateway to learning, not all doors are closed (jludeman90.wixsite.com)
2. My next favourite blog is that of Joshua Ellis. As someone of a similar age studying a degree sometimes it can be daunting when your group members are all 18 – 21 you can feel very out of place. The idea of changing careers in my 30s honestly scares me, I have been in HR now for 5 years and I have no plans on leaving. I feel that his bravery is nothing to be sneezed at in this regard. I enjoyed reading his KCQ’s as there were things in his that I honestly didn’t think of what I wrote my own which was good. – I Left a comment on his blog under assessment 1 – step 1 post. - Home | My Site (joshuarellis.wixsite.com)
3. Daniel People’s blog is next on my favourites list. Daniel is in the same position as me with 2 little people at home and a full-time job. Its nice to know that there are plenty of people in my situation hat are really giving it a go to further their own careers. I feel like after reading Dan’s step 1 his KCQs were a good read and helped me reflect on some of them myself. It seems that he is too a last-minute writer of assignments, and he is hoping that this subject will get him out of that habit. However, being in my last semester I feel it’s a too little too late situation. - Home | Dan's Degree (danielpeoples8.wixsite.com)
Studiosity Comments
I submitted my draft to Studiosity last night, I was surprised by how quick it was returned. The feedback was good and I was able to make some changes to my assignment here and there. If I would have known about it earlier it could have possibly helped me with some of my more difficult assignments that I've had to write over the years, however, due to my preferred 'style' of last minute assignment writing it probably never would have been practical. This semester I do have to make sure that I am ahead of myself thanks to my work and study loads in my final semester. I wouldn't be opposed to using it for my final semester as I plan on having everything written in advance to due dates to make sure I have enough time to move onto the next one. Thank you Martin for the introduction to Studiosity.
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