Finance Assignment: Investment Appraisal, Techniques, and Sources

This finance assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of investment appraisal techniques. It begins with the calculation of key metrics such as payback period, accounting rate of return (ARR), and net present value (NPV), demonstrating their application in evaluating potential investments. The assignment then delves into the benefits and limitations of various investment appraisal techniques, including discounted cash flow, sensitivity analysis, and the payback period method. Finally, it explores different sources of finance, such as bank borrowing, debentures, and factoring debts, outlining their advantages and disadvantages. The calculations are supported by an Excel file, providing detailed financial analysis. The assignment emphasizes the importance of these techniques in making informed financial decisions and managing investment risks.

Running head: FINANCE
Finance
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
(a) Calculation............................................................................................................................2
Calculation of payback period...............................................................................................2
Calculation of accounting rate of return.................................................................................2
Calculation of net present value.............................................................................................2
(b)Key benefits and the limitations of various investment appraisal technique........................3
Key benefits of using the investment techniques are as follows –.........................................3
Limitations of investment appraisal technique......................................................................3
(c) Sources of finance.................................................................................................................4
Reference....................................................................................................................................6

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Part C
(a) Calculation
Calculation of payback period
Calculation of payback
period
Purchase cost/Annual cash
inflow
= £40,000,000/ £14,000,000
= 2.86 years
Calculation of accounting rate of return
Calculation of Accounting rate of return
Annual depreciation £ 7,000,000.00
Average accounting Income £ 7,000,000.00
Accounting rate of return 17.50%
Calculation of net present value
Calculation of Net present value
Cash inflow
Year 1 £ 14,000,000.00
Year 2 £ 14,000,000.00
Year 3 £ 14,000,000.00
Year 4 £ 14,000,000.00
Year 5 £ 14,000,000.00
Net present value of cash inflow $57,402,764.10
Net present value $17,402,764.10
(The details calculations are shown in the excel file)
The net present value of any project is the difference among the present value of cash
inflows and present value of cash outflows. The NPV is utilized in the capital budgeting to
analyze the profitability of any projected investment or the project. It is also used to take the
decisions regarding whether any asset shall be purchased or not (Baum and Crosby 2014).

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When the discounted cash inflow is more than the cash outflow, the NPV is positive. It is
recommended that if any asset has positive NPV, the asset can be considered for purchase. In
the given circumstance, the net present value of the cash inflow with the 7% cost of capital is
£ 57,402,764.10 and the initial cash outlay is £40,000,000 for the purchase of the machine.
As the investment is giving the positive NPV amounting to £17,402,764.10, it is
recommended to purchase the machine.
(b)Key benefits and the limitations of various investment appraisal technique
The major techniques that are used for investment are –
 Accounting rate of return
 Discounted cash flow
 Payback period
 Sensitivity analysis and investment risk.
Key benefits of using the investment techniques are as follows –
 Enable to take quick decisions as the information are available with better availability
 Greater production quality and flexibility (Upton et al. 2015).
 Improves the image of the company, job satisfaction, better staff morale that leads to
greater productivity
 Faster pace for the time-to-market that leads to gain bigger share of the market
 The investment appraisal techniques are simple and easy to use
 Easy to understand and takes into account the time value of the money

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Limitations of investment appraisal technique
 Under the payback period method all the cash flows of the project are not taken into
consideration and biases are there towards the short-term investment with the shorter
PBP that ignores the cash timing (Eliasson and Börjesson 2014)
 With regard to the profitability index it ignores the scale or size of the project
 With regard to discounted payback period cash flows that fall beyond the payback
period are not taken into consideration. Further, no objective criteria are specified for
making any decision.
 With regard to the internal rate of return, the problems arise with regard to non-
conventional flow of cash, timing of the cash and size of the project (Willcocks 2013).
 With regard to the average accounting rate of return, the AARR is just a ratio and it
ignores the market value or the time value of money and are focussed only on the
historical figure.
(c) Sources of finance
 Bank borrowing – loan is the form of finance taken from the bank in terms of
payment of interest that is paid on with the instalment. The main advantage of bank
loan is the repayment can be made in instalment rather than paying the full amount at
a time. However, the main limitation of bank loan is the approval of the loan is
depended on the credit score of the company (Almarri and Blackwell 2014)
 Debentures – the finance can be raised through issuance of debentures and it is a form
of loan only. The main advantage of raising finance through debentures is that the
finance can be obtained immediately and can be redeemed after specified period.
However, the limitation is that at the time of repayment the borrower will have to
repay it along with the specified rate of interest.

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 Factoring debts – under factoring the debts of the company can be sold to factor or the
special factoring team to sell their debts and get immediate recovery in exchange of
some immediate payment to the factor (Gotze, Northcott and Schuster 2016). The
main advantage of this is that the organization does not have to worry about the
collection of debts and the debt amounts are realized immediately. However, the
limitation is that the factor charges commission for his service and sometimes the
charges are quite high.

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Reference
Almarri, K. and Blackwell, P., 2014. Improving risk sharing and investment appraisal for
PPP procurement success in large green projects. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 119, pp.847-856.
Baum, A.E. and Crosby, N., 2014. Property investment appraisal. John Wiley & Sons.
Eliasson, J. and Börjesson, M., 2014. On timetable assumptions in railway investment
appraisal. Transport Policy, 36, pp.118-126.
Gotze, U., Northcott, D. and Schuster, P., 2016. INVESTMENT APPRAISAL. SPRINGER-
VERLAG BERLIN AN.
Upton, J., Murphy, M., De Boer, I.J.M., Koerkamp, P.G., Berentsen, P.B.M. and Shalloo, L.,
2015. Investment appraisal of technology innovations on dairy farm electricity
consumption. Journal of dairy science, 98(2), pp.898-909.
Willcocks, L., 2013. Information management: the evaluation of information systems
investments. Springer.