188 Chapter 9 Capital Budgeting Techniques
29. Your assistant has just completed an analysis of two mutually exclusive projects. You must now
take her report to a board of directors meeting and present the alternatives for the board’s
consideration. To help you with your presentation, your assistant also constructed a graph with
NPV profiles for the two projects. However, she forgot to label the profiles, so you do not know
which line applies to which project. Of the following statements regarding the profiles, which one
is most reasonable?
If the two projects have the same investment cost, and if their NPV profiles cross once in
the upper right quadrant, at a discount rate of 40 percent, this suggests that a NPV versus
IRR conflict is not likely to exist.
If the two projects’ NPV profiles cross once, in the upper left quadrant, at a discount rate
of minus 10 percent, then there will probably not be a NPV versus IRR conflict,
irrespective of the relative sizes of the two projects, in any meaningful, practical sense
(that is, a conflict which will affect the actual investment decision).
If one of the projects has a NPV profile which crosses the X-axis twice, hence the project
appears to have two IRRs, your assistant must have made a mistake.
Whenever a conflict between NPV and IRR exist, then, if the two projects have the same
initial cost, the one with the steeper NPV profile probably has less rapid cash flows.
However, if they have identical cash flow patterns, then the one with the steeper profile
probably has the lower initial cost.
If the two projects both have a single outlay at t = 0, followed by a series of positive cash
inflows, and if their NPV profiles cross in the lower left quadrant, then one of the projects
should be accepted, and both would be accepted if they were not mutually exclusive.
30. A college intern working at Anderson Paints evaluated potential investments—that is, capital
budgeting projects—using the firm’s average required rate of return (WACC), and he produced
the following report for the capital budgeting manager:
The capital budgeting manager usually considers the risks associated with capital budgeting
projects before making her final decision. If a project has a risk that is different from average, she
adjusts the average required rate of return by adding or subtracting 2 percentage points. If the four
projected listed above are independent, which one(s) should the capital budgeting manager
recommend be purchased?
Project LOM only, because it has both the highest NPV and the higher IRR.
Projects LOM, QUE, and YUP, because they all have positive NPVs and their IRRs.
Projects DOG and QUE, because their IRRs are greater than their risk-adjusted discount
he projects returns are higher than the rates of return that capital budgeting manager uses
to evaluate them.
Projects QUE, YUP, and DOG, because their IRRs are greater than their risk-adjusted
discount rates—that is, the projects returns are higher than the rates of return that capital
budgeting manager uses to evaluate them.
There is not enough information to answer this question, because the firm’s average
required rate of return cannot be determined.