The petrochemical plants of Hind Petrochemicals Company (HPC) are situated in the South and East of India. The Company wants to expand in the West. HPC's existing refinery capacity is 9.5 metric ton. The central government has a refinery in a remote area of western India with a capacity of 3.5 metric ton. HPC has strategic interest in acquiring the refinery. As a part of its privatization policy, the central government is willing to sell the refinery for Rs. 1,550 million. T he company is in touch with the government for the purchase of the refinery for the last few months. According to the company-appointed valuers, the refinery would need an additional investment of Rs. 5,950 million in machineries and Rs. 300 million for working capital before starting the operations. According to the valuer, if the company so desired, the refinery including these facilities (including working capital) could be sold for Rs. 3,800 million after the planning horizon of five years. In that case, the company will have to incur Rs. 200 million at the end of the economic life of the refinery to clean the site. The initial cost of valuers' work was Rs.25 million. They will be paid an additional amount of Rs. 15 million in the first year if the company buys the refinery.

The corporate planning department of the company has estimated the profit from the refinery operation as given in Exhibit I. T he company has a policy of charging depreciation on straight-line basis. However, for tax purposes, the WDV depreciation on the block of assets applies. The depreciation rate is 25per cent. Corporate overhead costs include the three-fourths costs as the corporate overhead allocations and one-fourth costs incurred by the corporate office exclusively for the proposed project. The company proposes to finance the projects mostly by raising a 5-year 10 per cent loan from a financial institution. The management of the company feels that the investment in the refinery has the same risk and debt capacity as the current business; it must yield a return of 15 per cent. T he executives of the company are not unanimous on accepting the project. The financial controller's recommendation is to reject the project as it earns profits only in the first two years of the five-year period. The production manager considers the location as a strategic advantage since the company will have a plant in the West and could meet the demand easily. The marketing manager argues that the company should look at the investment's payback period. According to her, the depreciation included in the profit estimates is the recovery of the investment, and in addition, the company also earned profit in the first two years.

Should the project be accepted? Use the most suitable method of evaluation to give your recommendation and explicitly state your assumptions.