Imagine that a start-up firm plans to open private dining clubs on college campuses. The test market will be your campus, and if the concept proves successful, expansion will follow nationwide. Nationwide expansion will occur in year 4. If the firm expands, it projects opening 20 dining clubs in year 4 around the nation.

The start-up cost of the test dining club is $24000 (this covers leaseholder improvements and other expenses for a vacant restaurant near campus). Assume projected revenues are only sufficient to exactly cover variable and fixed costs (excluding depreciation) and thus the only cashflows over the first 4 years are tax shields from depreciation.

Also assume that the up-front costs can be depreciated in 4 years in a straight-line manner. The volatility of the underlying asset is 30% per annum. The interest rate available is 5% and the tax rate is 34%. What is the value of the option to expand (keep two decimal places)?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

To determine the value of the option to expand we can use the BlackScholes option pricing model Howe... View the full answer