10. Discuss the difference between performing the capital budgeting analysis from the parent firm’s perspective as opposed to the project perspective.
Answer: The goal of the financial manager of the parent firm is to maximize its shareholders’ wealth. A capital project of a subsidiary of the parent may have a positive NPV (or APV) from the subsidiary’s perspective yet have a negative NPV (or APV) from the parent’s perspective if certain cash flows cannot be repatriated to the parent because of remittance restrictions by the host country, or if the home currency is expected to appreciate substantially over the life of the project, yielding unattractive cash flows when converted into the home currency of the parent. Additionally, a higher tax rate in the home country may cause the project to be unprofitable from the parent’s perspective. Any of these reasons could result in the project being unattractive to the parent and the parent’s stockholders.
11. Define the concept of a real option. Discuss some of the various real options a firm can be confronted with when investing in real projects.
Answer: A positive APV project is accepted under the assumption that all future operating decisions will be optimal. The firm’s management does not know at the inception date of a project what future decisions it will be confronted with because all information concerning the project has not yet been learned. Consequently, the firm’s management has alternative paths, or options, that it can take as new information is discovered. The application of options pricing theory to the evaluation of investment options in real projects is known as real options.
The firm is confronted with many possible real options over the life of a capital asset. For example, the firm may have a timing option as when to make the investment; it may have a growth option to increase the scale of the investment; it may have a suspension option to temporarily cease production; and, it may have an abandonment option to quit the investment early.
12. Discuss the circumstances under which the capital expenditure of a foreign subsidiary might have a positive NPV in local currency terms but be unprofitable from the parent firm’s perspective.
Answer: The project NPV might be negative from the parent firm’s perspective when it is positive in local currency terms if all foreign cash flows cannot be legally repatriated to the parent firm. Additionally, if the PPP assumption does not hold, such that the actual future real exchange rate has depreciated in foreign currency terms, the after-tax cash flows will yield less units of home currency from the parent firm’s perspective than expected, possibly resulting in a negative NPV.