Working in a group (as professional accountants), you are required to calculate the NPV and the IRR of Projects Alpha (a) and Delta (d) and to provide critical advice on the best investment decision based on the information below. The expected cash flows of two projects (a and d) for the next four years are provided in the table below. As professional accountants of Marks & Spencer, you are required to provide critical advice to Marks & Spencers Board of Government on the best investment decision whether to invest in Project a or Project d. In order to maximize the investment return, you are required to employ the methods of NPV (Net Present Value) and IRR (Internal Rate of Return). With the prevailing inflation and interest rate in the securities lending and borrowing market, the opportunity cost of capital is estimated to be 10 per cent. As you already know, the opportunity cost of capital is the required return necessary to make Projects a and d worthwhile.

Period	Project a (in )	Project d (in )
Year 0	(100)	(100)
Year 1	20	0
Year 2	30	90
Year 3	60	30
Year 4	40	30

Required tasks:

1. Calculate the NPV and the IRR of each project.
2. Show the ranking of the projects by NPV and IRR criteria.
3. Advise M&S on the best investment action.