Overview:

Neuqun, Inc., a publicly traded firm, is considering the acquisition of a private company, Artforever.com, which specializes in restoring damaged artwork and vintage photographs for high net worth individuals. Neuqun's CEO and chairman of the board, Willie Ray, described the motivation for the acquisition as follows: "We are running out of profitable investment opportunities in our core vintage shoe restoration business, and our shareholders expect us to continue to grow. Therefore, we must look to acquisitions to expand into growing markets." Neuqun, Inc.'s common stock is currently trading at $50 per share, and the firm has 100,000 shares outstanding. The book value of the common stock is $20 per share. However, as mentioned by Mr. Ray, sales had been slowing recently and the board was concerned that soon the share price would also begin to flag as investors figured out that the firm was running out of positive NPV investments. The firm has $2,000,000 market value of bonds trading at a yield to maturity of 6.2%.

You have been hired as a consultant to Neuqun to evaluate the proposed acquisition of Artforever.com. There is considerable dissension among senior management and the board about whether the acquisition should be undertaken. Your job is to perform a thorough analysis of the merits of the proposed acquisition and make a recommendation to senior management. After several meetings with Neuqun management and a review of Artforever's financial performance and industry structure, you gathered the data shown in Table 1 below.

Your analysis of market data yielded the information in Table 2 below. Market Data Current yield to maturity on 30 year treasury bonds 2.50% Current yield to maturity on 3 month treasury bills 2.0% Most recent 1-year return on the S&P 500 5.3% Estimate of expected average return on the S&P 500 over the next 30 years 8.0%Forecast Data for Artforever.com (in $'000) 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Sales Revenue 1,000.0 1,250.0 1,875.0 2,100.0 3,750.0 Investment in CapEx and NWC 25.0 55.0 170.0 80.0 80.0 Depreciation 15.0 30.0 50.0 72.0 80.0 Interest payments 94.4 101.4 108.6 115.9 122.4