Chap 4 Comparing Net Present Value, Decision Trees, and Real Options

 We reviewed the finer points of net present value methodology.  It will always be the starting point for real options analysis ( ROA ) because we need the present value of a project without flexibility as a because.

A simple deferral option  Consider a decision that you must make today either to invest in a $1,600 project right now, or to defer until the end of a year.  Once made, the investment is irreversible.

To have perpetual level cash flows, the depreciation of the project each year is compensated by replacement investment of equal magnitude. The price level of output is $200 now, and there is a chance that it will go up to $300 at the end of a year or down to $100. In either case, the price change is assumed to be permanent. Therefore the long-term expected price level is also $200. The first unit is sold at the beginning of the first year of operation. The cost of capital is 10 percent.

 Thus, we are better off by deciding today to defer, rather than to invest.  The value of the deferral option is the difference between the two alternatives, namely $773 - $600 = $173.  Suppose that the volatility of the price increase but its expected value stays the same.  For example, there may be a chance that it goes either to $400 or $0.

 The value of the deferral option has increased from $173 to $673.  When uncertainty increases in the economy, due perhaps to political unrest, then one would predict that investment would decline in response because it becomes worth more to “ wait to see what happens. ”

A simplified comparison of net present value, decision tree analysis, and real options analysis  You have to decide right now whether to precommit to a project that will cost $115 million next year with absolute certainty, but will produce uncertain cash flows – a probability of either $170 million or $65 million.  The alternative to pre-commitment is to wait the end of the year to decide, and this right costs $C 0.

Estimating the net present value  Capital Asset Pricing Model, and search for company-level betas that are presumed to have the same risk as the project that is being valued.  The payoffs of our project and of the twin security.  Note that the twin security has cash payoffs that are exactly one fifth of the payoffs of our project,

 Its present value is $115/1.1 = $  The NPV of the project is $100 - $ = - $4.55  Let’s use a portfolio of m shares of the twin security and B bonds to replicate the payouts of our project.  Replicating portfolio payoff in the up state : m($34) + B( 1 + r f ) = $170  Replicating portfolio payoff in the down state : m($13) + B( 1 + r f ) = $65  Present value of the replicating portfolio : m($20) + B = 5 ($20) + 0 = $100.  The replicating portfolio approach discounts expected cash flows at a risk-adjusted rate, while the risk neutral approach discounts certainty-equivalent cash flows at the risk-free rate.

Decision tree analysis  This is a long-standing method for attempting to capture the value of flexibility.  The NPV of the project has increased from - $4.55 million given the inflexible pre- commitment alternative to $23.40 million with the ability to defer.  Consequently, the value of the deferral option, using the DTA approach is

 $23.4 – ( - $4.55 ) = $27.95 million.  At first glance, this seems to be a good approach, but on close reflection the DTA method is wrong. Why? Because the DTA approach violates the law of one price.  To value the cash flows provided by the deferral option, we need to use the replicating portfolio approach.

Real options analysis  To confirm with the law of one price when we evaluate the deferral option, we can form a complicating portfolio that is composed of m shares of the twin security,  Replicating portfolio in the up state : m($34) + B( 1 + r f ) = $55  Replicating portfolio in the down state : m($13) + B( 1 + r f ) = $0  Default-free bonds pay 8 percent interest.

 Replicating portfolio in the up state :  2.62($34) - $31.53( 1.08 ) = $ $34.05 =$55.00  Replicating portfolio in the down state :  2.62($13) - $31.53( 1.08 ) = $ $34.05 =$0  Present value of the replicating portfolio :  m($20/share) + B($1.00) = 2.62($20) - $31.53 = $20.87  The value of deferral is therefore $25.42 million.

 The DTA approach  The DTA approach will give the wrong answer because it assumes a constant discount rate throughout a decision tree, when the risk-less of the cash flow outcomes changes based on where we actually are located in the tree.  Replicating portfolio in the up state : m($34) + ( 1 + r f ) B = $0  Replicating portfolio in the down state : m($13) + ( 1 + r f ) B = $50  Present value of the replicating portfolio :  m($20) + B = ($20) + $74.93 = $27.34

Intuition of the replicating portfolio approach  m V u + B (1 + r f ) = C u  -[ m V d + B (1 + r f ) = C d ]  m V 0 + B 0 = C 0

The marketed asset disclaimer  The frustrating part of the twin security approach is that it is practically impossible to find a priced security whose cash payouts in every state of nature over the life of the project are perfectly correlated with those of the project.  Therefore, it is nearly impossible to find market- priced underlying risky assets.

 Early applications of real options analysis used the prices of world commodities as the underlying risky asset, but made the somewhat arbitrary assumption that the volatility of the underlying project without flexibility was the same as the observed volatility of the world commodity.  We are willing to make the assumption that the present value of the cash flows of the project without flexibility is the best unbiased estimate of the market value of the project were it a traded asset.  We call this assumption the Market Asset Disclaimer ( MAD ).

 If we use the MAD assumption, the payouts of the twin security are the same as those of the project itself, $170 in the up state and $65 in the down state, and the present value of the project is $100.  Replicating portfolio in the up state : m($170) + B( 1 + r f ) = $55  Replicating portfolio in the down state : m($65) + B( 1 + r f ) = $0  m = and B = - $31.54

 Present value of the project with flexibility :  m($100) +B = 0.524($100) - $31.54 = $ $31.54 = $20.86  MAD assumption as the basis for valuing real options on any real asset where we are able to estimate the traditional net present value without flexibility.  And if it’s okay for NPV analysis, then we can reasonably assume that the PV of a project without flexibility is the value it would fetch were it a marketed asset.

The risk-neutral probability approach  It starts out with a hedge portfolio that is composed of one share of the underlying risky asset and a short position in “m” shares of the option that is being priced; in our example this is a call position, the right to defer.  uV 0 – mC u = dV 0 – mC d  170 – m(55) = 65 – 0

Where :u = Up movement = 1.7 d = Down movement = 0.65 V 0 = Starting value = 100 C u = call value in up state = 55 C d = call value in down state = 0

 Given that we are long one unit of the underlying and short units of the call option :

More on the risk-adjusted and risk- neutral approaches  Exhibit 4.6 shows a two-period example of a project that has a current value of $100 with objective probabilities, q = 0.6, and ( 1 – q ) = 0.4, of moving up by 20 percent or down by percent each time period.  Given a weighted average cost of capital of 5.33 percent, we have a mutually consistent set of assumption.  The present value, the objective probabilities multiplied by the payoffs, and the risk-adjusted discount rate are a triad of assumptions that must be mutually consistent with each other.

V0 = $100, V1 = 0.6 (120) (83.33) = $105.33, and V2 = 0.36 (144) + 2 (0.6)(0.4)(100) (69.44) = $110.95

 This is greater than the $25 payoff if we exercise the option at node D.  Therefore, we hold (i.e., we keep our option alive to exercise later).  At node E : m = ,B=-10.88,C d = 2.75  At node F : m = ,B=-52.53,C 0 = 15.70

The risk-adjusted return changes from node to node reflecting the changing risk of the payoffs.

 The advantage of the risk-neutral probability approach is that the risk-neutral probabilities remain constant from node to node.

Comparison of financial and real options  The underlying for a financial option is a security such as a share of common stock or a bond (or interest rates), while the underlying for a real option is a tangible asset, for example, a business unit or a project.  Both types of option are the right, but not the obligation, to take an action.  The fact that financial options are written on traded securities makes it much easier to estimate their parameters.

 With real options, the underlying risky asset is usually not a traded security; therefore, we make the Marketed Asset Disclaimer assumption that we can estimate the present value of the underlying without flexibilities by using traditional net present value techniques.  Another important difference between financial and real options is that most financial options are side bets.  They are not issued by the company on whose shares they are contingent, but rather by independent agents who write them and buy those that are written.  Consequently, the agent that issues a call option has no influence over the actions of the company and no control over the company’s share price.

 Real options are different because management controls the underlying real assets on which they are written.  The act of enhancing the value of the underlying real asset also enhances the value of the option.  Finally, with both financial and real options, risk – the uncertainty of the underlying – is assumed to be exogenous.  The actions of a company that owns a real option may affect the actions of competitors, and consequently the nature of uncertainty that the company faces.