In: Finance
It is January 1 2020 and you have recently started a new company, Green- Drone, that produces flying drones for garden maintenance. You are stillat the product development stage but would like to evaluate the financial feasibility of the project. Here are some information about the company:
- R&D expenditures. In order to develop the drones, you need to
hire an engineer for 5 years at an annual salary of $96,000. The
salary is paid monthly at the end of the month in equal amounts,
i.e. 96,000/12 per month for the rst year. To stay competitive, you
expect you will have to grow the annual salary at a rate of 3%,
starting the next year. The engineer contract starts today, i.e.,
onJanuary 1 2020.
- Production cost. Once the product is developed in 5 years
(January 1 2025), you will start the production of your drones.
Each product is expected to cost $265 to produce. The cost is to be
paid to the supplier at the beginning of a month.
- Pricing and sales. You plan to sell the drones for $325 a unit
over the next three years, i.e., until January 1 2028. All sales
for products produced in a month are collected at the end of the
month. The appropriate discount rate r is 5%, annually compounded.
Denoting the quantity of drones sold in a month by Q. How many
drones do you need to sell per month to make this project protable
(i.e., generate a positive NPV)?
Use spreadsheet for the ease in computations. Enter values and
formulas in the spreadsheet as shown in the image below.
The obtained result is provided below.