dSCOTT BESLEY
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Integrative Case
Your boss, the chief financial officer (CFO) for Southern Textiles, has just handed you the estimated cash
flows for two proposed projects. Project L involves adding a new item to the firm’s fa
ic line. It would take
some time to build up the market for this product, so the cash inflows would increase over time. Project S
involves an add-on to an existing line, and its cash flows would decrease over time. Both projects have 3-year
lives because Southern is planning to introduce an entirely new fa
ic at that time.
Here are the net cash flow estimates (in thousands of dollars):
Expected Net Cash Flows
Year Project L Project S
0 $(100) $(100)
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
The CFO also made subjective risk assessments of each project, and he concluded that the projects both
have risk characteristics that are similar to the firm’s average project. Southern’s required rate of return is
10%. You must now determine whether one or both of the projects should be accepted.
a. What is capital budgeting?
. What is the difference between independent and mutually exclusive projects?
c. (1) What is the payback period? Find the traditional payback periods for Project L and Project S.
(2) What is the difference between the traditional payback and the discounted payback? What is
each project’s discounted payback?
(3) What are the main disadvantages of the traditional payback? Explain which project has the better
payback period.
d. (1) Define the term net present value (NPV). What is each project’s NPV?
e. (2) Define the term internal rate of return (IRR). What is each project’s IRR?
(3) Which is the better project according to NPV and IRR?