The Maintenance Manager of Prudence Ltd insists that management should maintain an old equipment that had been used for 5 years and is fully depreciated rather than buy a new one. The old equipment has a current operating cost of GH¢53,000.00 per annum. The operating cost of the equipment is expected to increase at 5% every year over the next four years, with a sale value of GH¢6,500.00 in the fifth year.

The Maintenance Manager has proposed, that a new system with enhanced technology to reduce operating cost to GH¢32,000.00 for the next three years and GH¢33,600.00 for the fourth and fifth years be introduced. The new equipment will cost GH¢60,000.00 and when introduced, a redundancy cost of GH¢25,000.00 will be paid, with the old equipment sold for GH¢12,000.00. The sale value of the new equipment will be GH¢10,200.00 after its five years’ useful life.

Required:
Using Net Present Value (NPV) method of capital appraisal with 20% cost of capital, advise management on which option Prudence Ltd should go for.

Calculation of savings in operating cost

Year 0 1 2 3 4 5
Old system GH¢53,000 GH¢55,650 GH¢58,432 GH¢61,354 GH¢64,422
New system GH¢32,000 GH¢32,000 GH¢32,000 GH¢33,600 GH¢33,600
Savings (GH¢21,000) GH¢23,650 GH¢26,432 GH¢27,754 GH¢30,822
Residual value GH¢3,700
DF 1 .833 .694 .579 .482 .402
DCF (GH¢73,000) GH¢17,493 GH¢16,413.10 GH¢15,304.13 GH¢13,377.43 GH¢13,877.84

NPV of savings: GH¢3,465.15

Alternative method

Year 0 1 2 3 4 5
Operating cost GH¢53,000 GH¢55,650 GH¢58,432 GH¢61,354 GH¢64,422
Residual value GH¢6,500
DF 1 .833 .694 .579 .482 .402
PV of operating cost GH¢53,000 GH¢44,149 GH¢38,621.10 GH¢33,832.13 GH¢29,572.63 GH¢23,284.64

NPV of operating cost: GH¢169,459.50

New

Year 0 1 2 3 4 5
Operating cost GH¢32,000 GH¢32,000 GH¢32,000 GH¢33,600 GH¢33,600
Initial cost GH¢73,000
Residual value GH¢10,200
DF 1 .833 .694 .579 .482 .402
PV of operating cost GH¢73,000 GH¢26,656 GH¢22,208 GH¢18,528 GH¢16,195.20 GH¢9,406.80

NPV of cost: GH¢165,994

The new system should be introduced.