[benpricelli]

This is an extra credit assignment I was assigned that I really need the points for. I am having a lot of trouble with it. I did a few of the questions but I'm not sure if they are right or not and I don't know how to do a few.

Here is my work, below is the actual assignment:

For number 1 (Listed below)
Payback = $46 million/$4 million = 11.5 years

NPV = (6.623 x $44 million) - $46 million
= 291.412 - 4.6 million
= $ 245.412 million

(*Note: I found that the discount factor for annuity with required rate of return at 14% and usful life of the project at 20 years is 6.623 in my accounting book)

I'm not sure if that is how you calculate it or not though.

For number 2 I took the 245.412 million and added the production and marketing savings to it:
245.412 million + 1 million + 2.5 million
=248.912 million

again I'm not sure if I did this right either.

number 3:

Payback = 50/7.5 million = 6.67 years

NPV= [6.623 x (7.5 x 6.67) - 50
=331.316 - 50
=281.316

I feel like none of those answers are even close to right though. I really don't understand this. Could someone please help me out?

At a recent executive meeting at Bertown Co, a manufacturer of parts for the auto industry, Kathy Wathy (VP of Finance) insisted that “if we are going to be competitive, we need to build this proposed completely automated plant.”

Steve Reeve (Bertown CEO) was not so sure. “The savings from labor reductions and increased productivity are expected to be $4 million annually. The price tag for this plant (and it is a small facility) is $46 million. That generates a payback period of more than 11 years, which is a long time to put the company’s money at risk.”

Sam Slam, the production manager, interjected that “Yes, but you are overlooking the savings that we will get from the increase in quality. With this system, we can decrease our waste and our rework time significantly. Those savings have to be worth another $1 million per year.”

“Another $1 million will decrease the payback to about nine years,” Steve replied. “Ron, as the marketing manager, do you have any insights?”

“Well, there are other factors to consider, such as service quality and market share,” said Ron John. “I think that increasing our product quality and improving our delivery service will make us a lot more competitive. I know for a fact that two of our competitors have decided against automation. That will give us a shot at their customers, provided our product is of higher quality and we can deliver it faster. I estimate that it will increase our net cash benefits by another $2.5 million annually.”

“Wow! Now that is more like it,” exclaimed Steve. “The payback is now getting down to a reasonable level.”

“I agree,” said Kathy, “but we do need to be sure that it is a sound investment. I know that the estimates for the construction of the facility have gone as high as $50 million. I also know that the expected residual value, after the 20 years of expected service, is around $6 million. I will see if this project can cover our 10 percent cost of capital requirement.”

“Wait,” said Steve, “there is a great deal of risk and uncertainty surrounding our estimates. We had better assess the project’s prospects at 14 percent, rather than the 10 percent normal cost of capital requirement.”

You work as a management accountant at Bertown. Kathy discussed much of the results of the meeting with you and asked you to provide the following information:


Required:
1.Determine the NPV and payback of the project using the original savings and investment estimates, at 14 percent.

2.Determine the NPV and payback of the project adding (to the information in part 1 above) the additional savings suggested by production and marketing, at 14 percent.

3.Determine the NPV and payback of the project using all of the information from part 2 (above), with the amount of the investment at the higher estimate of $50 million, at 14 percent.

4.Address the following issues:
a.Make a recommendation regarding the investment, based on your data from (1) – (3) above.

b.Identify and briefly discuss two (2) other ways that the company could deal with risk and uncertainty regarding this project (besides increasing the required rate of return).

c.Identify and briefly discuss what you believe are the two most important qualitative issues related to this project (make sure you explain why).