Diane was recently hired by Jackson Solar Corp. as a junior budget analyst. She is working for the Venture Capital Division and has been given for capital budgeting projects to evaluate. She must give her analysis and recommendation to the capital budgeting committee on Friday, July 31.

Diane has a B.S. in accounting from XXX (2007) and passed the CPA (2008). She has been in public accounting for 2 years. During that time she earned an MBA from Seattle U. She would like to be the CFO of a company someday--maybe Jackson Solar Corp.-- and this is an opportunity to get onto that career track and to prove her ability.

As Diane looks over the financial data collected, she is trying to make sense of it all. She already has the most difficult part of the analysis complete -- the estimation of cash flows. Through some internet research and application of finance theory, she has also determined the firms beta.

Here is the information that Diane has accumulated so far:

The Capital Budgeting Projects

She must choose one of the four capital budgeting projects listed below:

Table 1

t	A	B	C	D
0	(25,000,000)	(24,600,000)	(19,000,000)	(22,000,000)
1	7,500,000	11,000,000	6,200,000	4,600,000
2	7,500,000	9,000,000	6,200,000	7,600,000
3	7,500,000	6,000,000	6,200,000	8,800,000
4	7,500,000	4,000,000	6,200,000	8,800,000
Risk	High	Average	Average	Low

Table 1 shows the expected after-tax operating cash flows for each project. All projects are expected to have a 4 year life. The projects differ in size (the cost of the initial investment), and their cash flow patterns are different. They also differ in risk as indicated in the above table.

The capital budget is $25 million and the projects are mutually exclusive.

Capital Structures

Jackson Solar Corp. has the following capital structure, which is considered to be optimal:

Debt	40%
Preferred Equity	10%
Common Equity	50%
	100%

Cost of Capital

Diane knows that in order to evaluate the projects she will have to determine the cost of capital for each of them. She has been given the following data, which he believes will be relevant to her task.

(1)The firms tax rate is 40%.

(2) Jackson Solar Corp. has issued a 12% semi-annual coupon bond with 5 years term to maturity. The current trading price is $1,080.

(3) The firm has issued some preferred stock which pays an annual 11% dividend of $100 par value, and the current market price is $104.

(4) The firms stock is currently selling for $94 per share. Its last dividend (D0) was $3, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 9%. The current risk free return offered by Treasury security is 2.5%, and the market portfolios return is 10%. Jackson Solar Corp. has a beta of 1.3. For the bond-yield-plus-risk-premium approach, the firm uses a risk premium of 2.8%.

(5) The firm adjusts its project WACC for risk by adding 2.5% to the overall WACC for high-risk projects and subtracting 2.5% for low-risk projects.

Diane knows that Jackson Solar Corp. executives have favored IRR in the past for making their capital budgeting decisions. Her professor at Seattle U. said NPV was better than IRR. Her textbook says that MIRR is also better than IRR. She is the new kid on the block and must be prepared to defend her recommendations.

First, however, Diane must finish the analysis and write her report. To help begin, she has formulated the following questions:

What is the firms cost of debt?

What is the cost of preferred stock for Jackson Solar Corp.?

Cost of common equity

(1) What is the estimated cost of common equity using the CAPM approach?

(2) What is the estimated cost of common equity using the DCF approach?

(3) What is the estimated cost of common equity using the bond-yield-plus-risk-premium approach?

(4) What is the final estimate for rs?

What is Jackson Solar Corp.s overall WACC?

Do you think the firm should use the single overall WACC as the hurdle rate for each of its projects? Explain.

What is the WACC for each project? Place your numerical solutions in Table 2.

Calculate all relevant capital budgeting measures for each project, and place your numerical solutions in Table 2.

Table 2

	A	B	C	D
WACC
NPV
IRR
MIRR

Comment on the commonly used capital budgeting measures. What is the underlying cause of ranking conflicts? Which criterion is the best one, and why?

Which of the projects are unacceptable and why?

Rank the projects that are acceptable, according to Dianes criterion of choice.

Which project should Diane recommend and why? Explain why each of the projects not chosen was rejected.

Instructions

1.Your answers should be Word processed.

2.Questions 5, 8, 9, and 11 are discussion questions.

3.Place your numerical solutions in Table 2.

4.Show your steps for calculation questions.