Capital budgeting:
Capital budgeting is defined as the process of analyzing the
additions to the firm’s fixed assets. It is considered to be very
important because they chart the investment decisions relating to
fixed assets of the company’s future course. The capital budgeting
decisions of the firm are very much similar to the investment
decisions of the individual. These are the steps that are
involved:
- Estimating the cash flows: interest & maturity value or
dividends for stocks & bonds & for capital projects it is
the operating cash flows.
- The next step would be to assess the risks involved in the cash
flows.
- The next step is to determine the appropriate discount rate
which is based on the riskiness of the cash flows & the level
of interest rates. This is called as project cost of capital in
capital budgeting.
- The fourth step is to find the PV of the expected cash flows or
the rate of return on the assets.
- If the PV of inflows is greater than PV of outflows, the npv is
positive or if the irr is greater than the cost of capital of the
project, it is better to accept the project.