Reference no: EM132008787

THREES ELECTRONICS COMPANY Threes Electronics is a mid-sized electronics manufacturer located in Santa Monica, California. The company president is Jack Tripper, who inherited the company. The company originally repaired radios and other household appliances when it was founded over 70 years ago. Over the years, the company has expanded, and it is now a reputable manufacturer of various specialty electronic items. One of the major revenue-producing items manufactured by Threes Electronic is a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Threes Electronics currently has one PDA model on the market and sales have been excellent. The PDA is a unique item in that it comes in a variety of tropical colors and is preprogrammed to play Jimmy Buffet music. However, as with any electronic item, technology changes rapidly, and the current PDA has limited features in comparison with newer models. Threes Electronic spent $750,000 to develop a prototype for a new PDA that has all the features of the existing one, but adds new features such as cell phone capability. The company has spent a further $200,000 for a marketing study to determine the expected sales figures for the new PDA. Threes Electronic can manufacture the new PDA for $86 each in variable costs. Fixed costs for the operation are estimated to run $3 million per year. The estimated sales volume is 70,000, 80,000, 100,000, 85,000, and 75,000 per each year for the next five years, respectively. The unit price of the new PDA will be $250. The necessary equipment can be purchased for $15 million and will be depreciated on a 7-year MACRS schedule. It is believed the value of the equipment in five years will be $3 million. Net working capital for the PDAs will be 20 percent of sales and will occur with the timing of the cash flows for the year (i.e., there is a no initial outlay for NWC). Changes in NWC will thus first occur in Year 1 with the first year’s sales. Threes Electronic has a 35 percent (federal & state) corporate tax rate. Threes Electronic plans to finance by a combination of 1/3 debt and 2/3 internal equity (i.e., retained earnings). The beta of the firm’s stock is 1.75. The firm uses a risk-free rate of 4% and the market risk premium of 7%. Threes has 15,000 9 percent semi-annual coupon bonds outstanding, $1,000 par value per bond, 15 years to maturity, selling for 108 percent of par. Threes Electronic can issue bonds for $5 ~ $6 million in the similar terms. Construct a project cash flow statement; estimate the cost of capital; and provide NPV, IRR, payback period (our target PB is 3 years) and profitability index of this project.