Reference no: EM13695419

Hospital Services Inc. provides health care services primarily in the western part of the United States. The ?rm operates psychiatric hospitals that provide mental health care services using inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient settings. In the spring of 2010, the ?rm was considering an investment in a new patient-monitoring system that costs $9 million per hospital to install. The new system is expected to contribute to ?rm EBITDA via annual savings of $2 million in Years 1 and 2, plus $4 million in Years 3 and 4. The ?rm's chief ?nancial of?cer is interested in investing in the new system but is concerned that the savings from the system are such that the immediate impact of the project may be to dilute the ?rm's earnings. Moreover, the ?rm has just moved to an economic pro?t-based bonus system, and the CFO fears that the project may also make the individual economic pro?ts of the hospitals look bad-a development that would generate resistance from the various hospital managers if they saw their bonuses being decreased. a. Assuming that the cost of capital for the project is 8%, that the ?rm faces a 25% marginal tax rate, and that it uses straight-line depreciation over a four-year life for the new investment and that it has a zero salvage value, calculate the project's expected NPV and IRR. b. Calculate the annual economic pro?ts for the investment for Years 1 through 4. What is the present value of the annual economic pro?t measures discounted using the project's cost of capital? What potential problems do you see for the project? c. Calculate the economic depreciation for the project, and use it to calculate a revised economic pro?t measure following the procedure laid out in Table 7-8.What is the present value of all the revised economic pro?t measures when discounted using the project's cost of capital? (Hint: First, revise the initial NOPAT estimate from your answer to Question a by subtracting the economic depreciation estimate from project free cash ?ow calculated in Question a. Next, calculate the capital charge for each year based on invested capital less economic depreciation.) d. Using your analysis in answering Questions b and c, calculate the return on invested capital (ROIC) for Years 1 through 4 as the ratio of NOPAT for Year t to invested capital for Year t - 1. Compare the two sets of calculations and discuss how the use of economic depreciation affects the ROIC estimate for the project.