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1. Assume that Alessi Balsamic Vinegar sells for $3.50 for a 4 year old bottle a

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Question

1. Assume that Alessi Balsamic Vinegar sells for $3.50 for a 4 year old bottle and that a 20 year old bottle sells for $10.50. Calculate the annual rate of return that the company is expecting to earn. Show your work. Do not use a calculator with a built-in function for calculating rate of return. You can use a calculator for natural logarithms and Euler’s constant. Hint: use natural logarithms.

2)Calculate the levelized payment for a $1 annuity lasting 50 years growing at 3% and discounted at 5%. Show your work, using the technique that I showed you in class.

Explanation / Answer

(1)

If r: Annual rate of return, then

Price of 4-year bottle = Price of current year bottle x (1 + r)4 = $3.5 .... (1)

Price of 20-year bottle = Price of current-year bottle x (1 + r)20 = $10.50 ..... (2)

Dividing (2) by (1):

10.50 / 3.5 = (1 + r)5

(1 + r)5 = 3

Taking natural logarithms of both sides,

5 ln(1 + r) = ln 3

ln (1 + r) = ln 3 / 5 = 0.4771 / 5 = 0.0954

(1 + r) = e0.0954 = 1.10

r = 1.10 - 1 = 0.10 or 10%

(2)

The gradient by which the annuity grows each year is = (1 + growth rate) / (1 + discount rate)

= 1.03 / 1.05 = 0.03

So, the present value of cash flow series will be:

PV = A + 0.03A + (0.03)2A + (0.03)3A + ....... + (0.03)49A where A: Annuity = $1

Note: In absence of exact technique used in your class, I cannot proceed further.