Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture Net Present Value (NPV) / MBA Resources

Introduction to Net Present Value (NPV) - What is Net Present Value (NPV) ? How it impacts financial decisions regarding project management?

NPV solution for Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture case study

At Oak Spring University, we provide corporate level professional Net Present Value (NPV) case study solution. Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by Caren Scheepers, Deepa Sita. The Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture (referred as “Allergan South” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Organizational Development. It also touches upon business topics such as - Value proposition, Leadership, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational culture.

The net present value (NPV) of an investment proposal is the present value of the proposal’s net cash flows less the proposal’s initial cash outflow. If a project’s NPV is greater than or equal to zero, the project should be accepted.

NPV = Present Value of Future Cash Flows LESS Project’s Initial Investment

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Case Description of Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture Case Study

In early 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Allergan South Africa had been leading his team through changes resulting from a number of mergers over the past four years. Allergan Inc. (Allergan) had been the third-largest generic drug maker in the United States after it combined with Actavis plc in 2015, and the company was depicted as an example of "merger mania" in the pharmaceutical sector. Operating in 40 countries, Allergan had gone through a total of five mergers between 2012 and 2015-a period that had included a hostile takeover bid, cost cutting exercises, and, eventually, an acquisition. The CEO at Allergan South Africa had been working with his human resources director to build a "supertribe" culture in response to the changes. Now, faced with the challenge of yet another anticipated merger, some of the executive team had resigned, unwilling to go through the turmoil of more acquisitions. How could the CEO keep his people engaged at the regional division? What leadership style would enable him to effectively make the needed changes? Caren Scheepers and Deepa Sita are affiliated with University of Pretoria.

Case Authors : Caren Scheepers, Deepa Sita

Topic : Organizational Development

Related Areas : Leadership, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational culture

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Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 6% for Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture Case Study

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 6 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10013118)	-10013118	-	-
Year 1	3461060	-6552058	3461060	0.9434	3265151
Year 2	3962690	-2589368	7423750	0.89	3526780
Year 3	3948331	1358963	11372081	0.8396	3315095
Year 4	3225372	4584335	14597453	0.7921	2554797
TOTAL			14597453		12661823

The Net Present Value at 6% discount rate is 2648705

In isolation the NPV number doesn't mean much but put in right context then it is one of the best method to evaluate project returns. In this article we will cover -

Different methods of capital budgeting

What is NPV & Formula of NPV,
How it is calculated,
How to use NPV number for project evaluation, and
Scenario Planning given risks and management priorities.

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Capital Budgeting Approaches

Methods of Capital Budgeting

There are four types of capital budgeting techniques that are widely used in the corporate world –

1. Payback Period
2. Net Present Value
3. Profitability Index
4. Internal Rate of Return

Apart from the Payback period method which is an additive method, rest of the methods are based on Discounted Cash Flow technique. Even though cash flow can be calculated based on the nature of the project, for the simplicity of the article we are assuming that all the expected cash flows are realized at the end of the year.

Discounted Cash Flow approaches provide a more objective basis for evaluating and selecting investment projects. They take into consideration both –

1. Magnitude of both incoming and outgoing cash flows – Projects can be capital intensive, time intensive, or both. Allergan South shareholders have preference for diversified projects investment rather than prospective high income from a single capital intensive project.
2. Timing of the expected cash flows – stockholders of Allergan South have higher preference for cash returns over 4-5 years rather than 10-15 years given the nature of the volatility in the industry.

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Formula and Steps to Calculate Net Present Value (NPV) of Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture

NPV = Net Cash In Flowt1 / (1+r)t1 + Net Cash In Flowt2 / (1+r)t2 + … Net Cash In Flowtn / (1+r)tn
Less Net Cash Out Flowt0 / (1+r)t0

Where t = time period, in this case year 1, year 2 and so on.
r = discount rate or return that could be earned using other safe proposition such as fixed deposit or treasury bond rate. Net Cash In Flow – What the firm will get each year.
Net Cash Out Flow – What the firm needs to invest initially in the project.

Step 1 – Understand the nature of the project and calculate cash flow for each year.
Step 2 – Discount those cash flow based on the discount rate.
Step 3 – Add all the discounted cash flow.
Step 4 – Selection of the project

Why Organizational Development Managers need to know Financial Tools such as Net Present Value (NPV)?

In our daily workplace we often come across people and colleagues who are just focused on their core competency and targets they have to deliver. For example marketing managers at Allergan South often design programs whose objective is to drive brand awareness and customer reach. But how that 30 point increase in brand awareness or 10 point increase in customer touch points will result into shareholders’ value is not specified.

To overcome such scenarios managers at Allergan South needs to not only know the financial aspect of project management but also needs to have tools to integrate them into part of the project development and monitoring plan.

Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 15%

After working through various assumptions we reached a conclusion that risk is far higher than 6%. In a reasonably stable industry with weak competition - 15% discount rate can be a good benchmark.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 15 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10013118)	-10013118	-	-
Year 1	3461060	-6552058	3461060	0.8696	3009617
Year 2	3962690	-2589368	7423750	0.7561	2996363
Year 3	3948331	1358963	11372081	0.6575	2596092
Year 4	3225372	4584335	14597453	0.5718	1844117
TOTAL					10446189

The Net NPV after 4 years is 433071

(10446189 - 10013118 )

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Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 20%

If the risk component is high in the industry then we should go for a higher hurdle rate / discount rate of 20%.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 20 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10013118)	-10013118	-	-
Year 1	3461060	-6552058	3461060	0.8333	2884217
Year 2	3962690	-2589368	7423750	0.6944	2751868
Year 3	3948331	1358963	11372081	0.5787	2284914
Year 4	3225372	4584335	14597453	0.4823	1555446
TOTAL					9476444

The Net NPV after 4 years is -536674

At 20% discount rate the NPV is negative (9476444 - 10013118 ) so ideally we can't select the project if macro and micro factors don't allow financial managers of Allergan South to discount cash flow at lower discount rates such as 15%.

Acceptance Criteria of a Project based on NPV

Simplest Approach – If the investment project of Allergan South has a NPV value higher than Zero then finance managers at Allergan South can ACCEPT the project, otherwise they can reject the project. This means that project will deliver higher returns over the period of time than any alternate investment strategy.

In theory if the required rate of return or discount rate is chosen correctly by finance managers at Allergan South, then the stock price of the Allergan South should change by same amount of the NPV. In real world we know that share price also reflects various other factors that can be related to both macro and micro environment.

In the same vein – accepting the project with zero NPV should result in stagnant share price. Finance managers use discount rates as a measure of risk components in the project execution process.

Sensitivity Analysis

Project selection is often a far more complex decision than just choosing it based on the NPV number. Finance managers at Allergan South should conduct a sensitivity analysis to better understand not only the inherent risk of the projects but also how those risks can be either factored in or mitigated during the project execution. Sensitivity analysis helps in –

What are the uncertainties surrounding the project Initial Cash Outlay (ICO’s). ICO’s often have several different components such as land, machinery, building, and other equipment.

What can impact the cash flow of the project.

Understanding of risks involved in the project.

What are the key aspects of the projects that need to be monitored, refined, and retuned for continuous delivery of projected cash flows.

What will be a multi year spillover effect of various taxation regulations.

Some of the assumptions while using the Discounted Cash Flow Methods –

Projects are assumed to be Mutually Exclusive – This is seldom the came in modern day giant organizations where projects are often inter-related and rejecting a project solely based on NPV can result in sunk cost from a related project.

Independent projects have independent cash flows – As explained in the marketing project – though the project may look independent but in reality it is not as the brand awareness project can be closely associated with the spending on sales promotions and product specific advertising.

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Negotiation Strategy of Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture

References & Further Readings

Caren Scheepers, Deepa Sita (2018), "Allergan South Africa's Merger: Contextual Leadership Sustaining Culture Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.