CHAPTER 11

Cash Flow Estimation and

Risk Analysis

 Relevant cash flows

 Incorporating inflation
 Types of risk
 Risk Analysis
11-1
Proposed Project
 Total depreciable cost
 Equipment: $200,000
 Shipping: $10,000
 Installation: $30,000
 Changes in working capital
 Inventories will rise by $25,000
 Accounts payable will rise by $5,000
 Effect on operations
 New sales: 100,000 units/year @ $2/unit
 Variable cost: 60% of sales
11-2
Proposed Project
 Life of the project
 Economic life: 4 years
 Depreciable life: MACRS 3-year class
 Salvage value: $25,000
 Tax rate: 40%
 WACC: 10%

11-3
 Determining project value
 Estimate relevant cash flows
 Calculating annual operating cash flows.
 Identifying changes in working capital.
 Calculating terminal cash flows.
0 1 2 3 4

Initial OCF1 OCF2 OCF3 OCF4

Costs +
Terminal
CFs
NCF0 NCF1 NCF2 NCF3 NCF4
11-4
Initial year net cash flow
 Find Δ NOWC.
 ⇧ in inventories of $25,000


Funded partly by an ⇧ in A/P of $5,000
 Δ NOWC = $25,000 - $5,000 = $20,000
 Combine Δ NOWC with initial costs.

Equipment -$200,000
Installation -40,000
Δ NOWC -20,000
Net CF0 -$260,000
11-5
Determining annual
depreciation expense
Year Rate x Basis Depr
1 0.33 x $240 $ 79
2 0.45 x 240 108
3 0.15 x 240 36
4 0.07 x 240 17
1.00 $240

Due to the MACRS ½-year convention, a

3-year asset is depreciated over 4 years.

11-6
 Annual operating cash
flows
1 2 3 4
Revenues 200 200 200 200
- Op. Costs (60%) -120 -120 -120 -120
- Deprn Expense -79 -108 -36 -17
Oper. Income (BT) 1 -28 44 63
- Tax(40%) - -11 18 25
Oper. Income (AT) 1 -17 26 38
+ Deprn Expense 79 108 36 17
Operating CF 80 91 62 55

11-7
Terminal net cash flow
Recovery of NOWC $20,000
Salvage value 25,000
Tax on SV (40%) -10,000
Terminal CF $35,000

Q. How is NOWC recovered?

Q. Is there always a tax on SV?
Q. Is the tax on SV ever a positive cash
flow?

11-8
Should financing effects
be included in cash flows?
 No, dividends and interest expense
should not be included in the analysis.
 Financing effects have already been
taken into account by discounting cash
flows at the WACC of 10%.
 Deducting interest expense and
dividends would be “double counting”
financing costs.

11-9
Should a $50,000 improvement
cost from the previous year be
included in the analysis?
 No, the building improvement
cost is a sunk cost and should
not be considered.
 This analysis should only include
incremental investment.

11-10
 If the facility could be leased out
for $25,000 per year, would this
affect the analysis?
 Yes, by accepting the project, the firm
foregoes a possible annual cash flow
of $25,000, which is an opportunity
cost to be charged to the project.
 The relevant cash flow is the annual
after-tax opportunity cost.
 A-T opportunity cost = $25,000 (1 – T)
= $25,000(0.6)
= $15,000

11-11
If the new product line were to
decrease the sales of the firm’s
other lines, would this affect the
analysis?
 Yes. The effect on other projects’ CFs
is an “externality.”
 Net CF loss per year on other lines
would be a cost to this project.
 Externalities can be positive (in the
case of complements) or negative
(substitutes).

11-12
Proposed project’s cash flow time
line
0 1 2 3 4

-260 79.7 91.2 62.4 54.7

Terminal CF → 35.0
89.7

 Enter CFs into calculator CFLO

register, and enter I/YR = 10%.
 NPV = -$4.03 million
 IRR = 9.3%
11-13
 What is the project’s
MIRR?
0 10% 1 2 3 4

-260.0 79.7 91.2 62.4 89.7

68.6
110.4
106.1
-260.0 374.8
PV outflows $374.8 TV inflows
$260 =
(1 + MIRR)4
MIRR = 9.6% < k = 10%, reject the project
11-14
 Evaluating the project:
Payback period
0 1 2 3 4

-260 79.7 91.2 62.4 89.7

Cumulative:
-260 -180.3 -89.1 -26.7 63.0

Payback = 3 + 26.7 / 89.7 = 3.3 years.

11-15
If this were a replacement rather
than a new project, would the
analysis change?
 Yes, the old equipment would be sold, and
new equipment purchased.
 The incremental CFs would be the
changes from the old to the new situation.
 The relevant depreciation expense would
be the change with the new equipment.
 If the old machine was sold, the firm
would not receive the SV at the end of the
machine’s life. This is the opportunity
cost for the replacement project.

11-16
What if there is expected
annual inflation of 5%, is NPV
biased?
 Yes, inflation causes the discount
rate to be upwardly revised.
 Therefore, inflation creates a
downward bias on PV.
 Inflation should be built into CF
forecasts.

11-17
 Annual operating cash flows, if
expected annual inflation = 5%
1 2 3 4
Revenues 210 220 232 243
Op. Costs (60%) -126 -132 -139 -146
- Deprn Expense -79 -108 -36 -17
- Oper. Income (BT) 5 -20 57 80
- Tax (40%) 2 -8 23 32
Oper. Income (AT) 3 -12 34 48
+ Deprn Expense 79 108 36 17
Operating CF 82 96 70 65

11-18
Considering inflation:
Project net CFs, NPV, and
IRR
0 1 2 3 4

-260 82.1 96.1 70.0 65.1

Terminal CF → 35.0
100.1

 Enter CFs into calculator CFLO

register, and enter I/YR = 10%.
 NPV = $15.0 million.
 IRR = 12.6%.
11-19
What are the 3 types of
project risk?
 Stand-alone risk
 Corporate risk
 Market risk

11-20
What is stand-alone risk?
 The project’s total risk, if it were
operated independently.
 Usually measured by standard
deviation (or coefficient of variation).
 However, it ignores the firm’s
diversification among projects and
investor’s diversification among firms.

11-21
What is corporate risk?
 The project’s risk when
considering the firm’s other
projects, i.e., diversification
within the firm.
 Corporate risk is a function of
the project’s NPV and standard
deviation and its correlation
with the returns on other
projects in the firm.
11-22
What is market risk?
 The project’s risk to a well-
diversified investor.
 Theoretically, it is measured by
the project’s beta and it
considers both corporate and
stockholder diversification.

11-23
Which type of risk is most
relevant?
 Market risk is the most relevant
risk for capital projects, because
management’s primary goal is
shareholder wealth maximization.
 However, since total risk affects
creditors, customers, suppliers,
and employees, it should not be
completely ignored.

11-24
Which risk is the easiest to
measure?
 Stand-alone risk is the easiest to
measure. Firms often focus on
stand-alone risk when making
capital budgeting decisions.
 Focusing on stand-alone risk is not
theoretically correct, but it does
not necessarily lead to poor
decisions.
11-25
Are the three types of risk
generally highly
correlated?
 Yes, since most projects the firm
undertakes are in its core
business, stand-alone risk is likely
to be highly correlated with its
corporate risk.
 In addition, corporate risk is likely
to be highly correlated with its
market risk.
11-26
What is sensitivity
analysis?
 Sensitivity analysis measures the
effect of changes in a variable on the
project’s NPV.
 To perform a sensitivity analysis, all
variables are fixed at their expected
values, except for the variable in
question which is allowed to fluctuate.
 Resulting changes in NPV are noted.

11-27
What are the advantages and
disadvantages of sensitivity
analysis?
 Advantage
 Identifies variables that may have the
greatest potential impact on
profitability and allows management
to focus on these variables.
 Disadvantages
 Does not reflect the effects of
diversification.
 Does not incorporate any information
about the possible magnitudes of the
forecast errors.

11-28
Perform a scenario analysis of the
project, based on changes in the
sales forecast
 Suppose we are confident of all the
variable estimates, except unit sales. The
actual unit sales are expected to follow the
following probability distribution:

Case Probability Unit Sales

Worst 0.25 75,000
Base 0.50 100,000
Best 0.25 125,000

11-29
Scenario analysis
 All other factors shall remain constant and
the NPV under each scenario can be
determined.

Case Probability NPV

Worst 0.25 ($27.8)
Base 0.50 $15.0
Best 0.25 $57.8

11-30
 Determining expected NPV, σ NPV ,
and CVNPV from the scenario
analysis
 E(NPV) = 0.25(-
$27.8)+0.5($15.0)+0.25($57.8)
= $15.0

 σ = [0.25(-$27.8-$15.0)2 + 0.5($15.0-
NPV
$15.0)2 + 0.25($57.8-$15.0)2]1/2
= $30.3.

 CVNPV = $30.3 /$15.0 = 2.0.

11-31
If the firm’s average projects have
CVNPV ranging from 1.25 to 1.75,
would this project be of high,
average, or low risk?
 With a CVNPV of 2.0, this project
would be classified as a high-risk
project.
 Perhaps, some sort of risk
correction is required for proper
analysis.

11-32
Is this project likely to be correlated
with the firm’s business? How would
it contribute to the firm’s overall
risk?
 We would expect a positive correlation
with the firm’s aggregate cash flows.
 As long as correlation is not perfectly
positive (i.e., ρ ≠ 1), we would expect it
to contribute to the lowering of the
firm’s total risk.

11-33
If the project had a high
correlation with the economy, how
would corporate and market risk
be affected?
 The project’s corporate risk would not
be directly affected. However, when
combined with the project’s high stand-
alone risk, correlation with the economy
would suggest that market risk (beta) is
high.

11-34
If the firm uses a +/- 3% risk
adjustment for the cost of capital,
should the project be accepted?
 Reevaluating this project at a 13%
cost of capital (due to high stand-
alone risk), the NPV of the project
is -$2.2 .
 If, however, it were a low-risk
project, we would use a 7% cost of
capital and the project NPV is
$34.1.

11-35
What subjective risk factors should
be considered before a decision is
made?

 Numerical analysis sometimes fails to

capture all sources of risk for a
project.
 If the project has the potential for a
lawsuit, it is more risky than
previously thought.
 If assets can be redeployed or sold
easily, the project may be less risky.

11-36
What is Monte Carlo
simulation?
 A risk analysis technique in
which probable future events are
simulated on a computer,
generating estimated rates of
return and risk indexes.
 Simulation software packages
are often add-ons to spreadsheet
programs.
11-37