In: Finance
What does perpetuity mean? Please describe a financial example of a perpetuity.
Perpetuity is a very important concept in Finance. Normally when we invest in something we receive cash flows till the time the investment matures. For example a security or a bond. However in perpetuity, the annuities received never ends. That means we continue to receive cash flows indefinitely , throughout the end of time.
However it is noteworthy to mention that perpetuities have finite value given as
Value of perpetuity= Cash flow/ rate of return
Examples:
Suppose a company grows 10% annually until year 5 after which it grows 2% until perpetuity.
So in order to value the stock of the company we require to find the terminal value of the perpetuity and discount them to present value.