Now suppose this project has an investment timing option, since it can be delayed for a year. The cost will still be $70 million at the end of the year, and the cash flows for the scenarios will still last three years. However, Tropical Sweets will know the level of demand, and will implement the project only if it adds value to the company. Perform a qualitative assessment of the investment timing option’s value.

MINI CASE 

Assume that you have just been hired as a financial analyst by Tropical Sweets Inc., a mid-sized California company that specializes in creating exotic candies from tropical fruits such as mangoes, papayas, and dates. The firm's CEO, George Yamaguchi, recently returned from an industry corporate executive conference in San Francisco, and one of the sessions he attended was on real options. Since no one at Tropical Sweets is familiar with the basics of real options, Yamaguchi has asked you to prepare a brief report that the firm's executives could use to gain at least a cursory understanding of the topics. To begin, you gathered some outside materials the subject and used these materials to draft a list of pertinent questions that need to be answered. In fact, one possible approach to the paper is to use a question-and-answer format. Now that the questions have been drafted, you have to develop the answers.