Chapter Eight

Investment decision rules

Answers to Problems
Note: All problems in this chapter are available in MyLab Finance Lab. An asterisk (*) indicates
problems with a higher level of difficulty.

The NPV decision rule

1. You have an opportunity to invest $50 000 now in return for $60 000 in one
year. If your cost of capital is 8%, what is the NPV of this investment?

Plan: Calculate the NPV by computing the PV of the 60,000 using r = 0.08.

Execute: NPV = –$50,000 + $60,000/1.08 = $5,555.56

Evaluate: This is a good investment opportunity; it produces a positive NPV.

2. You have an opportunity to invest $100 000 now in return for $80 000 in one
year and $30 000 in two years. If your cost of capital is 9%, what is the NPV
of this investment?

Plan: Calculate the NPV by computing the PV of the two positive cash flows using r = 0.09.
80,000 80, 000
Execute: NPV  100, 000    $1355.10
1.09 1.092
Evaluate: This is a bad investment opportunity as it produces a negative NPV. Even though the
total of the cash flows is more than the investment, they come later in time and are not enough
to overcome the time value of money at your cost of capital.

3. Your storage firm has been offered $100 000 in one year to store some goods
for one year. Assume your costs are $95 000, payable immediately, and the
cost of capital is 8%. Should you take the contract?

Plan: Determine the net present value of the proposal. NPV  PVbenefits  PVcos ts

 $1.08 in one year 

Execute: PVbenefits  $100, 000 in one year     $92,592.59 today
 $ today 
PVcosts  $95, 000 today

NPV  92,592.59  95, 000  $2407.41 today

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 Evaluate: No, you should not take the contract, as the NPV of the contract is negative. This
would destroy value for the firm.

4. You run a construction firm. You have just won a contract to build a
government office building. Building it will require an investment of $10
million today and $5 million in one year. The government will pay you $20
million in one year upon the building’s completion. Assume the cost of capital
is 10%.

a. What is the NPV of this opportunity?

b. How can your firm turn this NPV into cash today?

Plan: The NPV of a project is the present value of the benefits minus the present value of the
costs. Compute the NPV of the project. If NPV is positive, accept the project. If NPV is negative,
reject the project.

If the project is accepted, then determine how much money a lender would be willing to lend
against the cash flows of the project.

Execute: NPV  PVbenefits  PVcosts

 $1.10 in one year 
PVbenefits  $20 million in one year     $18.18 million
 $ today 
PVthis year's costs  $10 million today
 $1.10 in one year 
PVnext year's costs  $5 million in one year     $4.55 million
 $ today 
NPV  18.18  10  4.55  $3.63 million today ; hence, accept the project.

Evaluate: The firm can borrow $18.18 million today and pay it back with 10% interest using the
$20 million it will receive from the government (18.18  1.10 = 20). The firm can use$10 million
of the $18.18 million to cover its costs today, and save $4.55 million in the bank earning 10%
interest to cover its cost of 4.55  1.10 = $5 million next year. This leaves 18.18 – 10 – 4.55 =
$3.63 million in cash for the firm today, the same amount as the NPV.

5. You have been offered a unique investment opportunity. If you invest $10
000 today, you will receive $500 one year from now, $1500 two years from
now, and $10 000 10 years from now.

a. What is the NPV of the opportunity if the cost of capital is 6% per year?
Should you take the opportunity?

b. What is the NPV of the opportunity if the cost of capital is 2% per year?
Should you take it now?

Plan: Draw a timeline to show when the cash flows will occur. Determine the NPV of the cash
flows at 6% interest and 2% interest.

Execute:
0 1 2 3 10
–10,000 500 1500 10,000
500 1500 10,000
a. NPV  10,000     $2609.36
1.06 1.062 1.0610

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 500 1500 10,000
b. NPV  10,000     $135.43
1.02 1.022 1.0210
Evaluate:
a. Since at a 6% interest rate, the NPV is –$2609.36, which is less than zero, you would not
take this investment opportunity.
b. Since at a 2% interest rate, the NPV is $135.43, which is greater than zero, you would take
this investment opportunity.

6. Joyce Richardson owns her own business and is considering an investment.

If she undertakes the investment, it will pay $4000 at the end of each of the
next three years. The opportunity requires an initial investment of $1000 plus
an additional investment at the end of the second year of $5000. What is the
NPV of this opportunity if the cost of capital is 2% per year? Should Joyce
take it?

Plan: Draw the timeline of the cash flows for the investment opportunity. Compute the NPV of
the investment opportunity at 2% interest per year to determine if it is an attractive investment
opportunity.

0 1 2 3

–1000 4000 –1000 4000

4000 1000 4,000

Execute: NPV  1,000     $5729.69
1.02 1.022 1.023

Evaluate: Since the investment opportunity has a positive NPV of $5729.69, Joyce should make
the investment.

Using the NPV rule

7. Your factory has been offered a contract to produce a part for a new printer.
The contract would last for three years and your cash flows from the contract
would be $5 million per year. Your up-front setup costs to be ready to produce
the part would be $8 million. Your cost of capital for this contract is 8%.

a. What does the NPV rule say you should do?

b. If you take the contract, what will be the change in the value of your firm?

Plan: We can compute the NPV of the project similarly to Eq. (8.3). The cash flows are an
immediate $8 million outflow followed by an annuity inflow of $5 million per year for 3 years and
a discount rate of 8%.

Execute:
5  1 
a. NPV  8   1  $4.89 million
0.08  1.083 

Given: 3 8 5 0
Solve for: -12.89
Excel formula: =PV(0.08,3,5)

NPV = –8 million + 12.89 million = $4.89 million

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 The NPV rule dictates that you should accept this contract.
b. The value of the firm will increase by $4.89 million.

Evaluate: The NPV rule indicates that by making the investment, your factory will increase the
value of the firm today by $4.89 million

11. AdventureParks Ltd is evaluating the construction of a new theme park. The
theme park would cost $500 million to build, but would operate for 20 years.
AdventureParks expects annual cash flows from operating the theme park to
be $70 million and its cost of capital is 12%.

a. Prepare an NPV profile of the purchase.

b. Identify the IRR on the graph.

c. Should AdventureParks go ahead with the project?

d. How far off could AdventureParks’ cost of capital estimate be

before your project decision would change?

a.

b. The IRR is the point at which the line crosses the x-axis. In this case, it falls very close to
13%. Using Excel, the IRR is 12.7%.
c. Yes, because the NPV is positive at the discount rate of 12%.
d. The discount rate could be off by 0.724% before the investment decision would change.

Alternative decision rules

12. You are a real estate agent thinking of placing a sign advertising your services
at a local bus stop. The sign will cost $5000 and will be posted for one year.
You expect that it will generate additional revenue of $500 per month. What
is the payback period?

5000/500 = 10 months. You will recover your expenditure for the sign in 10 months.

17. Nanosoft Corporation is thinking about marketing a new software product.

Up-front costs to market and develop the product are $5 million. The product
is expected to generate profits of $1 million per year for 10 years. The

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 company will have to provide product support expected to cost $100 000 per
year in perpetuity. Assume that all profits and expenses occur at the end of
the year.

a. What is the NPV of this investment if the cost of capital is 6%? Should the
firm undertake the project? Repeat the analysis for discount rates of 2% and
11%.

b. How many IRRs does this investment opportunity have?

c. What does the IRR rule indicate about this investment?

Plan: We can compute the NPV of the project using an approach similar to Eq. 8.3. Setting the
NPV to zero, we can then solve for the IRR and then analyze the results according to the IRR
rule.

Execute:

a. Timeline:
0 1 2 10 11 12

–5 1 – 0.1 1 – 0.1 1 – 0.1 −0.1 −0.1

1  1 

The PV of the profits is PVprofits  1
r   
10
 1  r 
0.1
The PV of the support costs is PVsupport 
r
1  1  0.1
NPV  5  PVprofits  PVsupport  5  1  
r    r
10
 1  r 
If r = 6% then NPV = $693,420.
If r = 2% then NPV = –$1,017,415.
If r = 11% then NPV = –$19,859.

b. From the answer to part (a) there are at least two IRRs. We can see that because the NPV
is negative at 2%, then is positive at 6% and then is negative again at 11%. Therefore, the
NPV profile must cross the x-axis at least twice.

c. The IRR rule says nothing in this case because there are at least two IRRs.

Evaluate: The IRR investment rule is based on the concept that if the return on the investment
opportunity you are considering is greater than the return on other alternatives in the market
with the equivalent risk and maturity you should undertake the investment opportunity. In this
case, there are two IRRs and therefore the IRR rule is not useful. The NPV rule states that when
making an investment decision, take the alternative with the highest NPV. Choosing this
alternative is equivalent to receiving its NPV in cash today. In this case, the NPV is positive only
when the cost of capital is at 6% and therefore they should accept the project at the cost of
capital of 6% only.

18. You own a coal mining company and are considering opening a new mine. The
mine itself will cost $120 million to open. If this money is spent immediately,
the mine will generate $20 million for the next 10 years. After that, the coal
will run out and the site must be cleaned and maintained at environmental
standards. The cleaning and maintenance are expected to cost $2 million per
year in perpetuity. What does the IRR rule say about whether you should

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 accept this opportunity? If the cost of capital is 8%, what does the NPV rule
say?

Plan: We can compute the IRR by first computing the NPV and finding the rate that sets that
NPV equal to zero. In order to determine how many IRRs will set NPV equal to zero we can plot
NPV as a function of the discount rate.

Execute: The timeline of this investment opportunity is:

0 1 2 10 11 12

–120 20 20 20 –2 –2

Computing the NPV of the cash flow stream:

20  1 
 2
NPV  120  1
r  1  r   r 1  r 

10 10


You can verify that r = 0.02924 or 0.08723 gives an NPV of zero. There are two IRRs, so you
cannot apply the IRR rule. Let’s see what the NPV rule says. Using the cost of capital of 8% gives:
20  1  2
NPV  120  1   $2.622 million
0.08  1.0810  0.08 1.08 10

The investment has a positive NPV of $2,621,791. In this case, the NPV as a function of the
discount rate is n-shaped.

If the opportunity cost of

capital is between 2.93%
and 8.72%, the
investment should be
undertaken.

Evaluate: The IRR investment rule is based on the concept that if the return on the investment
opportunity you are considering is greater than the return on other alternatives in the market
with the equivalent risk and maturity you should undertake the investment opportunity. In this
case, there are two IRRs and therefore the IRR rule is not useful. The NPV rule states that when
making an investment decision, take the alternative with the highest NPV. Choosing this
alternative is equivalent to receiving its NPV in cash today. In this case, the NPV is positive and
the investment should be undertaken if the opportunity cost of capital is between 2.93% and
8.72%.

Choosing between projects

24. You are choosing between two projects, but can only take one. The cash flows
for the projects are given in the following table:

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 a. What are the IRRs of the two projects?

b. If your discount rate is 5%, what are the NPVs of the two projects?

c. Why do IRR and NPV rank the two projects differently?

Plan: We can compute the IRR by using an approach similar to Eq. 8.3 and then rearranging it
so that NPV equals zero and solving for r. Once we compute r, we can compute the NPV of both
projects.
0 1 2 3 4

–50 25 20 20 15
–100 20 40 50 60
25 20 20 15
a. NPVA  50      IRRA  24%
1  r 1  r 2
1  r  1  r 
3 4

20 40 50 60
NPVB  100      IRRB  21%
1  r 1  r 2 1  r 3 1  r 4

25 20 20 15
b. NPVA  50      $21.57 million
1.05 1.052
1.053
1.054
20 40 50 60
NPVB  100      $47.88 million
1.05 1.052 1.053 1.054
Evaluate: The IRR and NPV rank differently due to the difference in the initial investment.
Investment A earns a higher rate of return on a smaller investment.

26. You are considering the following two projects and can only take one. Your
cost of capital is 11%.

a. What is the NPV of each project at your cost of capital?

b. What is the IRR of each project?

c. At what cost of capital are you indifferent between the two projects?

d. What should you do?

Plan: Compute the NPV and the IRR of each project.

Execute: The timeline of the investment opportunity is:

0 1 2 3 4

–100 25 30 40 50
–100 50 40 30 20

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 25 30 40 50
a. NPVA  100      $9.06 million
1.11 1.112 1.113 1.114
50 40 30 20
NPVA  100      $12.62 million
1.11 1.112
1.113
1.114

b. Solving for the discount rate that results in zero NPV:

IRRA = 14.7%IRRB = 17.8%

c. This can be solved two ways. One is to calculate the IRR of the difference in cash flows
between the two projects. The other is to create NPV profiles of both investments and
determine the cost of capital at which the NPVs of both projects are the same.
0 1 2 3 4

–100 25 30 40 50
–100 50 40 30 20
0 –25 –10 10 30

25 10 10 30
NPV  0      IRR  5.567%
1  r 1  r 2
1  r  1  r 
3 4

NPV profiles of investments A and B are shown below. The profiles cross at a cost of capital
of 5.6%.

Evaluate:
d. You should invest in B, as it has a higher NPV.

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