Question

Your company is about to undertake a major investment project. The project will require an initial outlay of $100 million for fixed assets plus another $50 million for working capital. Tax authorities will allow you to depreciate the fixed assets on a straight-line basis over four years to a salvage value of zero. In fact, however, you expect that you can sell the fixed assets for $25 million at the end of Year 4. You also expect that you can recover your working capital at its book value at that time. You expect that the project will generate $60 million in revenue and $30 million in cash operating expenses (excluding depreciation) during each of the next four years. The corporate tax rate is 40%.

A) What are the cash flows for each year of the project’s life that you would use in conducting an NPV analysis of the project?
B) If the cost of capital is 10%, what is the project’s NPV?
C) What is the minimum price at which you could sell the fixed assets at the end of Year 4 in order for the project to be just acceptable?

Answer 1

A) initial outlay = $150 million

Cash flow year 1 = [($30 - $25) x 0.6] + $25 = $28

Cash flow year 2 = [($30 - $25) x 0.6] + $25 = $28

Cash flow year 3 = [($30 - $25) x 0.6] + $25 = $28

Cash flow year 4 = [($30 - $25) x 0.6] + $25 + ($25 x 60%) + $50 = $93

B) Using a financial calculator, NPV = -$16.85 million

C) cash flow year 4 should increase by $24.667 million, meaning that the selling price must increase by $$24.667/0.6 = $41.11 million

minimum selling price $25 + $41.11 = $66.11 million