Part: B
Net Present Value (NPV) calculates the present value of the cash flow which is based on the opportunity cost of capital and comes up with a value that is added to the wealth of the shareholders if that project is accepted.
Apart from Net present Value (NPV) there are a couple of more methods for investment appraisal such as internal rate of return (IRR), Payback period (PBP) and Profitability Index (PI).
Net Present Value (NPV) vs. Payback Period (PBP):
Payback period calculates the period in which the initial amount invested in the project is recovered.
The project is accepted or rejected based on the benchmark set by the firm. If the payback period is less than or equal to the benchmark the firm will accept the project and
…show more content…
Such a problem does not exist with NPV.
Net Present Value (NPV) vs. Profitability Index (PI)
Profitability index is a ratio between the discounted cash inflow to the initial cash outflow. It presents a value which says how many times of the investment is the returns in the form of discounted cash flows.
The disadvantage associated with this method again is its relativity. A project can have same profitability index with different investments and vast difference in absolute dollar return. NPV has an upper hand in this case.
Conclusion:
We have noted that almost all the difficulties are survived by net present value and that is why it is considered to be the best way to analyze, evaluate, and select big investment projects. At the same time, the estimation of cash flows requires carefulness because if the cash flow estimation is wrong, NPV is bound to be misleading.
A small problem with NPV is that it also considers the same discounting rate for both cash inflow and outflows. We know that there are differences between borrowing and lending rates. Modified internal rate of return is another method which is little more complex but improved which takes care of the difference between borrowing and lending rates also as it discounts cash inflows at lending rates and cash outflow at borrowing rates.
Part: C
According to International Energy Agency (2015), energy demand will grow by
10. What is the net present value (NPV) of a long-term investment project? Describe how managers use NPVs when evaluating capital budget proposals.
NPV analysis uses future cash flows to estimate the value that a project could add to a firm’s shareholders. A company director or shareholders can be clearly provided the present value of a long-term project by this approach. By estimating a project’s NPV, we can see whether the project is profitable. Despite NPV analysis is only based on financial aspects and it ignore non-financial information such as brand loyalty, brand goodwill and other intangible assets, NPV analysis is still the most popular way evaluate a project by companies.
Finally, in order to complete a more accurate comparison between the two projects, we utilized the EANPV as the deciding factor. Under current accepted financial practice, NPV is generally considered the most accurate method of predicting the performance of a potential project. The duration of the projects is different, one lasts four years and one lasts six years. To account for the variation in time frames for the projects and to further refine our selection we calculated the EANPV to compare performance on a yearly basis.
2. Net Present Value – Secondly, Peter needs to investigate the Net Present Value (NPV) of each project scenario, i.e. job type, gross margin, and # new diamonds drills purchased. The NPV will measure the variance of the present value of cash outflow (drilling equipment investment) versus the future value of cash inflows (future profits), at the benchmark hurdle rate of 20%. A positive NPV associated with the investment means that the investment should be undertaken as it exceeds the minimum rate of return. A higher NPV determines which project scenario will have the highest return on cash flow, hence determining the most profitable investment in terms of present money value.
The dollar value of the NPV in light of the expenditure is irrelevant. The project adds to shareholder wealth, and should therefore be accepted. The only time when the dollar values of the expenditure and the NPV matter is when the company must choose between two mutually exclusive alternatives (FAO, n.d.). In that case, the obligation that management has is to undertake the project that delivers the greatest increase in shareholder wealth.
Account for time. Time is money. We prefer to receive cash sooner rather than later. Use net present value as a technique to summarize the quantitative attractiveness of the project. Quite simply, NPV can be interpreted as the amount by which the market
Net Present Value (NPV) calculates the sum of discounted future cash flows and subtracting that amount with the initial investment of the project. If the NPV of a project results in a positive number, the project should be undertaken. It is the most widely used method of capital budgeting. While discount rate used in NPV is typically the organization’s WACC, higher risk projects would not be factored in into the calculation. In this case, higher discount rate should be used. An example of this is when the project to be undertaken happens to be an international project where the country risk is high. Therefore, NPV is usually used to determine if a project will add value to the company. Another disadvantage of NPV method is that it is fairly complex compared to the other methods discussed earlier.
In the case of Worldwide Paper Company we performed calculations to decide whether they should accept a new project or not. We calculated their net income and their cash flows for this project (See Table 1.6 and 1.5). We computed WPC’s weighted average cost of capital as 9.87%. We then used the cash flows to calculate the company’s NPV. We first calculated the NPV by using the 15% discount rate; by using that number we calculated a negative NPV of $2,162,760. We determined that the discount rate of 15% was out dated and insufficient. To calculate a more accurate NPV for the project, we decided to use the rate of 9.87% that we computed. Using this number we got the NPV of $577,069. With the NPV of $577,069 our conclusion is to accept this
The PAYBACK technique is based on cash flows and it measures the time which is required for a proposal’s initial cash outflow to equal its cash inflow generated by the investment, the solution is expressed in years and month or days.
The use of an accounting rate of return also underscores a project 's true future profitability because returns are calculated from accounting statements that list items at book or historical values and are, thus, backward-looking. According to the ARR, cash flows are positive due to the way the return has been tabulated with regard to returns on funds employed. The Payback Period technique also reflects that the project is positive and that initial expenses will be retrieved in approximately 7 years. However, the Payback method treats all cash flows as if they are received in the same period, i.e. cash flows in period 2 are treated the same as cash flows received in period 8. Clearly, it ignores the time value of money and is not the best method employed. Conversely, the IRR and NPV methods reflect that The Super Project is unattractive. IRR calculated is less then the 10% cost of capital (tax tabulated was 48%). NPV calculations were also negative. We accept the NPV method as the optimal capital budgeting technique and use its outcome to provide the overall evidence for our final decision on The Super Project. In this case IRR provided the same rejection result; therefore, it too proved its usefulness. Despite that, IRR is not the most favorable method because it can provide false results in the case where multiple negative
In fully investigating all of our calculations we are fully invested in using the Net Present Value figures we calculated as a means of ranking the eight projects. In doing so we found reasons in which why the Net Present Value was our benchmark for ranking the projects and why we did not use the Payback Method. The Payback Method ignores the time value of money, requires and arbitrary cutoff point, ignores cash flows beyond the cutoff date, and is biased against long-term projects, such as research and development and new projects. When comparing the Average Accounting Return Method to the Net Present Value method we found that the Average Accounting Return Method is a worse option than using the Payback Method. The Average Accounting Return Method is not a true rate of return and the time value of money is ignored, it uses an arbitrary benchmark cutoff rate, and is based on accounting net income and book values, not cash flows and market values. Plain and simply put, the Net Present Value method is the best criterion to use when ranking these eight
There are several traditional methods that can be used in appraising investment decisions. For instance, the net present value method (NPV) which entails estimating the costs and revenues of a project and discounting these figures to get their present values. Projects with the biggest positive net present value are the ones chosen as they represent the best stream of benefits of investing in the project over and above recovering the cost of initiating the projects. The discount rate is another method which is similar to the net present value method but reflects more on the time preference. This approach may focus on the opportunity cost of
This analysis will determine whether or not the project is worth pursuing using a net present value (NPV) approach.
This project evaluates the discounted Net Present Value which shows the estimated cash flow. The cash flow forecast is for 10 year which incorporates International complexities as well as the cost of capital.
Mutually exclusive projects are another situation for which NPV must extend its approach. In such projects, the chosen project is usually one which results in the greatest positive NPV because this will produce the greatest addition to shareholders’ wealth. In the case of mutually exclusive investments, ranking becomes crucial as only