The capital budgeting process begins with assembling of investment proposals of different departments of a firm.
Investment Evaluation Criteria
The
capital budgeting process begins with assembling of investment proposals of
different departments of a firm. The departmental head will have innumerable
alternative projects available to meet his requirements. He has to select the
best alternative from among the conflicting proposals. This selection is made
after estimating return on the projects and comparing the same with the cost of
capital. Investment proposal which gives the highest net marginal return will
be chosen.
Following are the steps involved in the evaluation of an investment:
1. Estimation of cash flows
2. Estimation of the required rate of return
3. Application of a decision rule for making the choice
Features required by
Investment Evaluation Criteria
A
sound appraisal technique should be used to measure the economic worth of an
investment project. Porter field, J.T.S. in his book, Investment Decisions and
Capital Costs, has outlined some of the features that must be had by sound
investment evaluation criteria.
1. It should consider all cash flows to determine the true profitability of the project.
2. It should provide for an objective and unambiguous way of separating good projects from bad projects.
3. It should help ranking of projects according to their true profitability.
4. It should recognise the fact that bigger cash flows are preferable to smaller ones and early cash flows are preferable to later ones.
5. It should help to choose among mutually exclusive projects that project which maximizes the shareholders’ wealth.
6. It should be a criterion which is applicable to any conceivable investment project independent of others.
Tags : Financial Management - Capital Budgeting – A Conceptual Framework
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