6. Valuing the growth option with the Black-Scholes option pricing model Aa Aa Real option analysis can be used to alter the timing, scale, or other aspects of an investment in response to market conditions Businesses face the dilemma of whether to invest in a project or abandon it if it does not add value to the firm. Real option analysis allow financial managers to determine the financial consequences o this flexibility and the value of the option Consider the case of Blue Gorilla Media Company Blue Gorilla Media Company, a social networking company, has seen triple-digit growth in its website's registrations over the past two years. Most of the website's subscribers live outside the United States, and the company is seeing a significant increase in the number of users from Brazil. As a result, Blue Gorilla is considering opening a marketing office in Brazil to expand its marketing efforts the Management, however, is not sure if the Brazilian expansion via the opening of a subsidiary office will necessarily help the company grow and increase its value. Management's uncertainty is the result of the possibility that Brazil's Internet connectivity will be insufficient to support all of Blue Gorilla's forecasted growth. One of Blue Gorilla's employees, Luana, who is originally from Brazil, conducted some preliminary market research and submitted the following details about the potential five-year project: Opening the new marketing office in Brazil will require initial an investment of $6.00 million According to research on Brazil's mobile technology infrastructure, Lua noted there is a 60% probability that the country's mobile connectivity will be sufficient to generate additional advertising cash flows of $9.00 million per year for the company for the next five years Alternatively, there is a 40% chance that Brazil's mobile Internet connectivity will be insufficient to support Blue Gorilla's desired growth in Brazil. In this case, the company expects to generate additional net advertising-related annual cash flows of only $3.00 m on for the next five years. The project's expected cost of capital is 13.00%, and the risk-free rate is 4%. The project's WACC should be used to discount all cash flows Given this information, the project's expected net present value (NPW) without the consideration of the growth option is After further research, Luana added a few more details to her proposal If Brazil's Internet connectivity is good, then at the end of Year 3, Blue Gorilla should consider investing $4.50 million to purchase an existing Brazilian marketing firm and creating a new subsidiary The new subsidiary is expected to generate $3.60 million of addition annual cash flows in years 4 and year 5. However, if the Internet connectivity in Brazil is inadequate to support Blue Gorilla's desired customer growth, then the company will not invest the additional funds in year 3 or earn the expected additional advertising-related cash flows Based on Luana's additional information, use the decision tree analysis to calculate the NPV of the project including the growth option Then, calculate the value of the growth option by itself, and select the correct answers from the choices available in the following table. Remember to use the project's cost of capital to discount all cash flows. Value NPV of the project with growth option l Growth option value Lastly, Luana wants to use the the Black-Scholes option pricing model (OPM) to determine the value of the growth option. To do this she has collected and computed values for the several additional variables, and has given you the Black-Scholes OPM equation for the valuation of an option (V): P x N(d1)) (x xe x IN(d2)) where
