Centennial Catering, Inc., is considering two mutually exclusive investments. The company wishes to use a CAPM-type risk adjusted discount rate (RADR) in its analysis. Centennial's managers believe that the appropriate market rate of return is 12%, and they observe that the current risk-free rate of return is 7%. Cash flows associated with the two projects are shown in the following table.
a. Use a risk-adjusted discount rate approach to calculate the net present value of each project, given that project X has an RADR factor of 1.20 and project Y has an RADR factor of 1.40. The RADR factors are similar to project betas.
b. Discuss your findings in part a, and recommend the preferred project.