It was his intention to determine the expected value for sales for the first year and then project a 20 percent growth rate for the next three years and 10 percent for the final two years. Operating expenses, which were expected to average 70 percent of sales, would then be subtracted to determine earnings before depreciation and taxes. The primary investment to be made was in printing and production equipment, which would fall into the five-year MACRS depreciation category. The equipment, which represents the investment for the project costs $2.8 million.
Mr. Barnes looked into the capital budgeting manual to determine the appropriate discount rate (as shown in Figure 3). The discount rate for the project is based on the standard deviation of first year’s sales was $1,226,000. He knew he could easily determine the expected value from the date previously presented (in Figure 2).
Mr. Barnes thought that it was now time to call his assistants together to do the appropriate analysis.