Chapter 6 - Investment appraisal under uncertainty Flashcards
What is risk?
Quantifiable. Possible outcomes have associated probabilities, thus allowing the use of mathematical techniques.
What is uncertainty?
Unquantifiable. Outcomes cannot be mathematically modelled.
How do risk and uncertainty affect investment appraisals?
because the appraisals are on attempt to forecast the future of such things as cash flows, inflation rates, taxation laws, cost of capital etc, none of of which may be known for certain over the life of the investment
What techniques are used to calculate risk?
- Expected values
- adjusted payback
- risk-adjusted discount rates
What techniques are used to estimate uncertainty?
- Set shorter payback targets
- make prudent estimates of cash floes in the appraisal
- assess best and worst case scenarios
- use sensitivity analysis
How do we calculate the sensitivity margin?
(NPV / PV of cash flows under consideration) x100
What is sensitivity analysis?
Calculates how much one input value must change before the decision changes (say from accept to reject)
The smaller the margin means what regarding sensitivity?
the more sensitive is the project NPV is to the changes in that inout variable
If sensitivity analysis is with taxation how do we calculate the PV of flow under consideration, net of tax?
(PV of revenue) - (PV of revenue x 30% )
How would we calculate the sensitivity of the project to discount rate?
Calculate the IRR of the project
If sensitivity analysis is with taxation how do we calculate the PV of flow under consideration, net of tax and if the tax is a year in arrears?
(PV of revenue) - (PV of revenue x 30% x 1 year discount )
What are some advantages of sensitivity analysis?
- simple to calculate and evaluate
- provides further information to allow management to make subjective judgements
- identifies critical estimates
What are some disadvantages of sensitivity analysis?
- Assumes variables change independently of each other
- only assesses the impact of one variable changing at a time
- does not assess the likelihood of a variable changing
- Does not directly identify a correct accept/reject decision for a project
What is probability analysis techniques?
Allow us to take risk into account (i.e where our outcomes can be evaluated in terms of their likelihoods of occurring in our investment appraisal decisions.
What techniques will be used in terms of probability analysis?
Expected value (EV)
Measure risk by:
- calculating worst possible outcome and its probability
- calculating the probability that the project will fail (NPV negative)
- assessing the standard deviation of the outcomes