PART 1 Plastitubes Limited WACC You have been employed by a company called Plastitubes Ltd., as a project-finance manager, working with a small team of project-finance experts. Plastitubes is based in Aucklands south-eastern industrial area of Penrose and manufactures a variety of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) pipes and containers used for transporting and storing corrosive liquids. Plastitubes supplies customers in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands who are mainly involved in the petrochemical and wastewater (sewage) treatment industries. Their main product, FRP pipe, has an exceptional strength to weight ratio, and weight for weight is stronger than steel. The pipes also have good shock and impact resistance and excellent flow characteristics as a smooth glass-like interior finish reduces material build-up and improves fluid transmission. Plastitubes is a medium sized company listed on the NZX and has 35 million shares on issue - the current share price is $2.50. In addition, Plastitubes issued 10 million preference shares 5 years ago. These preference shares have a $1 face value and a fixed dividend of 11%p.a. The preference shares are currently trading at $1.75 each. The company's equity beta () is 1.30, the New Zealand market risk premium is estimated at 6.0% p.a., the yield on 10-year New Zealand government bonds is 2.30% p.a., and the company tax rate is 28%. The companys long-term debt consists entirely of 25,000 10-year bonds issued exactly 4 years ago (these are listed on NZDX). Each bond has a face value of $1,000 and an annual coupon rate of 8% (paid annually). The bonds are currently trading at a yield to maturity of 6% p.a.

Extracts from Plastitubes latest financial statements show the following: Balance Sheet of Plastitubes as at 31 March 2022 ($000) Current Assets 5,000 Current Liabilities 6,000 Non-Current Assets 80,000 Non-current Liabilities (Loans) 25,000 Preference Shares 10,000 Ordinary Shares 35,000 Retained Earnings 9,000 Total Assets 85,000 Total L & OE 85,000 Your project-finance team has just received a memo (see following page) from the companys Chief Executive Officer, Freddy May, and you have decided you all need to prepare thoroughly for any questions that might arise from your colleagues in the meeting mentioned in the memo. On first glance you are a little concerned with some of the CEOs calculations and feel you might have to talk briefly with Mr May before the meeting as well

Memo To: All Finance Staff From: Freddy May - CEO Date: 9 May 2022 Re: Capital Expenditure As you know, Plastitubes evaluates Capital Expenditure decisions using discounted cash-flows. The discount, or hurdle, rate is our companys weighted average cost of capital. This memo is to clarify our companys long-standing policy regarding hurdle rates for these investment decisions. Plastitubes is considering an investment in a new FRP Filament Winder that will improve the quality and reliability of our manufacturing processes, simultaneously eliminating a significant proportion of our variable costs. In case youre unaware, filament winding is the process of winding resin-impregnated fibre on a mandrel surface in a precise geometric pattern. This is accomplished by rotating the mandrel while a delivery head, under computer control, precisely positions continuous strands of fibres on the mandrel surface. Compared to our existing, labour intensive, manufacturing process this investment should provide us with significant advantages however, it does also significantly increases the companys operating leverage. Our target rate of return on equity has been 15% for many years. I realise that many new employees feel that this target is too high but I feel we need to aim for the highest profitability we can in order to keep our shareholders as happy as possible. The following table summarises the composition of Plastitubes financing:

	amount	of total	rate
Bonds	25,000	35.7%	8.00%
preference shares	10,000	14.3%	11.00%
ordinary shares	35,000	50.0%	15.00%

From these data I have estimated Plastitubes weighted average cost of capital as: WACC = (0.357 x 0.080) + (0.143 x 0.11) + (0.50 x 0.15) = 0.1193 or approx. 12% Therefore the official hurdle rate for this and all future CAPEX decisions is 12%. If you have any further questions about these calculations please direct those to our new project-finance manager and their team who are more than qualified to explain things to you.

Plastitubes Limited CAPEX As alluded to in Mr. Mays memo from Part 1, Plastitubes is considering an investment in a new FRP Filament Winder that will improve the quality and reliability of its manufacturing processes, simultaneously eliminating a significant proportion of its variable costs. Filament winding is the process of winding resin-impregnated fibre on a mandrel surface in a precise geometric pattern. This is accomplished by rotating the mandrel while a delivery head, under computer control, precisely positions continuous strands of fibres on the mandrel surface. Compared to its existing, labour- intensive, manufacturing process this investment should improve production-efficiency however it will unfortunately significantly increase the companys operating leverage. The plant will cost $10 million plus a further $120,000 investment in inventory at the start of the project, and is expected to last for seven years before it needs replacing. Once the plant has reached the end of its useful life the additional investment in inventory will no longer be needed. The new plant is expected to generate an additional $6.75 million revenue in its first year and achieve a growth rate in revenues of 12% for the following two years, flattening out at 4% for the remaining four years of the plants life. Variable costs are projected to be 43% of sales in the first year, and will then grow at a constant rate of 4% thereafter (i.e. these costs are not 100% variable w.r.t. sales). Fixed annual operating costs (excluding depreciation) of $2.4 million are anticipated throughout the life of the plant. The new plant would be depreciated on a straight line basis over the seven years to a residual value of $3 million. At the end of its life it is expected that the plant will be sold at its book value. The companys production manager, Peter Parker, has asked your finance team to complete a financial analysis for the investment and to prepare a report about the viability of the project. He will make a recommendation to the board of directors based, in part, on your financial analysis and report.

Write a report to Peter Parker explaining your analysis and clearly recommending and explaining whether Plastitubes should accept the proposed investment.