The Option to Delay!

  When a firm has exclusive rights to a project or product for a specific

period, it can delay taking this project or product until a later date.

  A traditional investment analysis just answers the question of whether
the project is a “good” one if taken today.

  Thus, the fact that a project does not pass muster today (because its
NPV is negative, or its IRR is less than its hurdle rate) does not mean
that the rights to this project are not valuable.

Aswath Damodaran
26

 Valuing the Option to Delay a Project!

PV of Cash Flows

from Project

Initial Investment in

Project

Present Value of Expected

Cash Flows on Product

Project's NPV turns

Project has negative
positive

in this section

NPV

in this section

Aswath Damodaran
27

 Example 1: Valuing product patents as options!

  A product patent provides the firm with the right to develop the
product and market it.

  It will do so only if the present value of the expected cash flows from
the product sales exceed the cost of development.

  If this does not occur, the firm can shelve the patent and not incur any
further costs.

  If I is the present value of the costs of developing the product, and V is
the present value of the expected cashflows from development, the
payoffs from owning a product patent can be written as:

Payoff from owning a product patent
= V - I

if V> I







= 0

if V ≤ I

Aswath Damodaran
28

 Payoff on Product Option!

Net Payoff to

introduction

Cost of product

introduction

Present Value of

cashflows on product

Aswath Damodaran
29

 Obtaining Inputs for Patent Valuation!

Input Estimation Process

1. Value of the Underlying Asset • Present Value of Cash Inflows from taking project
now
• This will be noisy, but that adds value.
2. Variance in value of underlying asset • Variance in cash flows of similar assets or firms
• Variance in present value from capital budgeting
simulation.
3. Exercise Price on Option • Option is exercised when investment is made.
• Cost of making investment on the project ; assumed
to be constant in present value dollars.
4. Expiration of the Option • Life of the patent

5. Dividend Yield • Cost of delay

• Each year of delay translates into one less year of
value-creating cashflows
1
Annual cost of delay =
n

Aswath Damodaran
30

 Valuing a Product Patent: Avonex!

  Biogen, a bio-technology firm, has a patent on Avonex, a drug to treat

multiple sclerosis, for the next 17 years, and it plans to produce and
sell the drug by itself. The key inputs on the drug are as follows:

PV of Cash Flows from Introducing the Drug Now = S = $ 3.422 billion

PV of Cost of Developing Drug for Commercial Use = K = $ 2.875 billion

Patent Life = t = 17 years Riskless Rate = r = 6.7% (17-year T.Bond rate)

Variance in Expected Present Values =σ2 = 0.224 (Industry average firm variance for
bio-tech firms)

Expected Cost of Delay = y = 1/17 = 5.89%

d1 = 1.1362
N(d1) = 0.8720

d2 = -0.8512
N(d2) = 0.2076

Call Value= 3,422 exp(-0.0589)(17) (0.8720) - 2,875 (exp(-0.067)(17) (0.2076)= $
907 million

Aswath Damodaran
31

 The Optimal Time to Exercise!
Patent value versus Net Present value

1000

900

800
Exercise the option here: Convert patent to commercial product
700

600
Value

500

400

300

200

100

0
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Number of years left on patent

Value of patent as option Net present value of patent

Aswath Damodaran
32

 Valuing a firm with patents!

  The value of a firm with a substantial number of patents can be derived

using the option pricing model.

Value of Firm = Value of commercial products (using DCF value




+ Value of existing patents (using option pricing)




+ (Value of New patents that will be obtained in the



future – Cost of obtaining these patents)

  The last input measures the efficiency of the firm in converting its
R&D into commercial products. If we assume that a firm earns its cost
of capital from research, this term will become zero.

  If we use this approach, we should be careful not to double count and
allow for a high growth rate in cash flows (in the DCF valuation).

Aswath Damodaran
33

 Value of Biogen’s existing products!

•  Biogen had two commercial products (a drug to treat Hepatitis B and

Intron) at the time of this valuation that it had licensed to other
pharmaceutical firms.

•  The license fees on these products were expected to generate $ 50
million in after-tax cash flows each year for the next 12 years. To
value these cash flows, which were guaranteed contractually, the pre-
tax cost of debt of the guarantors was used:

Present Value of License Fees = $ 50 million (1 – (1.07)-12)/.07






= $ 397.13 million

Aswath Damodaran
34

 Value of Biogen’s Future R&D!

•  Biogen continued to fund research into new products, spending about

$ 100 million on R&D in the most recent year. These R&D expenses
were expected to grow 20% a year for the next 10 years, and 5%
thereafter.

•  It was assumed that every dollar invested in research would create $
1.25 in value in patents (valued using the option pricing model
described above) for the next 10 years, and break even after that (i.e.,
generate $ 1 in patent value for every $ 1 invested in R&D).

•  There was a significant amount of risk associated with this component
and the cost of capital was estimated to be 15%.

Aswath Damodaran
35

 Value of Future R&D!

Yr
Value of
R&D Cost
Excess Value
Present Value


Patents




(at 15%)

1
$ 150.00
$ 120.00
$ 30.00
$ 26.09


2
$ 180.00
$ 144.00
$ 36.00
$ 27.22


3
$ 216.00
$ 172.80
$ 43.20
$ 28.40


4
$ 259.20
$ 207.36
$ 51.84
$ 29.64


5
$ 311.04
$ 248.83
$ 62.21
$ 30.93


6
$ 373.25
$ 298.60
$ 74.65
$ 32.27


7
$ 447.90
$ 358.32
$ 89.58
$ 33.68


8
$ 537.48
$ 429.98
$ 107.50
$ 35.14


9
$ 644.97
$ 515.98
$ 128.99
$ 36.67


10
$ 773.97
$ 619.17
$ 154.79
$ 38.26









$ 318.30

Aswath Damodaran
36

 Value of Biogen!

  The value of Biogen as a firm is the sum of all three components – the
present value of cash flows from existing products, the value of
Avonex (as an option) and the value created by new research:

Value = Existing products + Existing Patents + Value: Future R&D


= $ 397.13 million + $ 907 million + $ 318.30 million


= $1622.43 million

  Since Biogen had no debt outstanding, this value was divided by the
number of shares outstanding (35.50 million) to arrive at a value per
share:

Value per share = $ 1,622.43 million / 35.5 = $ 45.70

Aswath Damodaran
37

 The Real Options Test: Patents and Technology!

  The Option Test:

•  Underlying Asset: Product that would be generated by the patent

•  Contingency:

If PV of CFs from development > Cost of development: PV - Cost

If PV of CFs from development < Cost of development: 0

  The Exclusivity Test:

•  Patents restrict competitors from developing similar products

•  Patents do not restrict competitors from developing other products to treat the same
disease.

  The Pricing Test

•  Underlying Asset: Patents are not traded. Not only do you therefore have to estimate the present values and
volatilities yourself, you cannot construct replicating positions or do arbitrage.

•  Option: Patents are bought and sold, though not as frequently as oil reserves or mines.

•  Cost of Exercising the Option: This is the cost of converting the patent for commercial production. Here,
experience does help and drug firms can make fairly precise estimates of the cost.

  Conclusion: You can estimate the value of the real option but the quality of your estimate will be a
direct function of the quality of your capital budgeting. It works best if you are valuing a publicly
traded firm that generates most of its value from one or a few patents - you can use the market value
of the firm and the variance in that value then in your option pricing model.

Aswath Damodaran
38

 Example 2: Valuing Natural Resource Options!

  In a natural resource investment, the underlying asset is the resource

and the value of the asset is based upon two variables - the quantity of
the resource that is available in the investment and the price of the
resource.

  In most such investments, there is a cost associated with developing
the resource, and the difference between the value of the asset
extracted and the cost of the development is the profit to the owner of
the resource.

  Defining the cost of development as X, and the estimated value of the
resource as V, the potential payoffs on a natural resource option can be
written as follows:


Payoff on natural resource investment
= V - X
if V > X







= 0
if V≤ X

Aswath Damodaran
39

 Payoff Diagram on Natural Resource Firms!

Net Payoff on

Extraction

Cost of Developing

Reserve

Value of estimated reserve

of natural resource

Aswath Damodaran
40

 Estimating Inputs for Natural Resource Options!

Input Estimation Process

1. Value of Available Reserves of the Resource • Expert estimates (Geologists for oil..); The
present value of the after-tax cash flows from
the resource are then estimated.
2. Cost of Developing Reserve (Strike Price) • Past costs and the specifics of the investment

3. Time to Expiration • Relinqushment Period: if asset has to be

relinquished at a point in time.
• Time to exhaust inventory - based upon
inventory and capacity output.
4. Variance in value of underlying asset • based upon variability of the price of the
resources and variability of available reserves.

5. Net Production Revenue (Dividend Yield) • Net production revenue every year as percent
of market value.

6. Development Lag • Calculate present value of reserve based upon

the lag.

Aswath Damodaran
41

 Valuing an Oil Reserve!

  Consider an offshore oil property with an estimated oil reserve of 50

million barrels of oil, where the present value of the development cost
is $12 per barrel and the development lag is two years.

  The firm has the rights to exploit this reserve for the next twenty years
and the marginal value per barrel of oil is $12 per barrel currently
(Price per barrel - marginal cost per barrel).

  Once developed, the net production revenue each year will be 5% of
the value of the reserves.

  The riskless rate is 8% and the variance in ln(oil prices) is 0.03.

Aswath Damodaran
42

 Inputs to Option Pricing Model!

  Current Value of the asset = S = Value of the developed reserve

discounted back the length of the development lag at the dividend
yield = $12 * 50 /(1.05)2 = $ 544.22

(If development is started today, the oil will not be available for sale until two years
from now. The estimated opportunity cost of this delay is the lost production
revenue over the delay period. Hence, the discounting of the reserve back at the
dividend yield)

  Exercise Price = Present Value of development cost = $12 * 50 = $600
million

  Time to expiration on the option = 20 years

  Variance in the value of the underlying asset = 0.03

  Riskless rate =8%

  Dividend Yield = Net production revenue / Value of reserve = 5%

Aswath Damodaran
43

 Valuing the Option!

  Based upon these inputs, the Black-Scholes model provides the

following value for the call:

d1 = 1.0359
N(d1) = 0.8498

d2 = 0.2613
N(d2) = 0.6030

  Call Value= 544 .22 exp(-0.05)(20) (0.8498) -600 (exp(-0.08)(20) (0.6030)= $
97.08 million

  This oil reserve, though not viable at current prices, still is a valuable
property because of its potential to create value if oil prices go up.

Aswath Damodaran
44

 Extending the option pricing approach to value natural
resource firms!

  Since the assets owned by a natural resource firm can be viewed

primarily as options, the firm itself can be valued using option
pricing models.

  The preferred approach would be to consider each option separately,
value it and cumulate the values of the options to get the firm value.

  Since this information is likely to be difficult to obtain for large
natural resource firms, such as oil companies, which own hundreds of
such assets, a variant is to value the entire firm as one option.

  A purist would probably disagree, arguing that valuing an option on a
portfolio of assets (as in this approach) will provide a lower value
than valuing a portfolio of options (which is what the natural
resource firm really own). Nevertheless, the value obtained from the
model still provides an interesting perspective on the determinants of
the value of natural resource firms.

Aswath Damodaran
45

 Valuing Gulf Oil !

  Gulf Oil was the target of a takeover in early 1984 at $70 per share (It
had 165.30 million shares outstanding, and total debt of $9.9 billion).

•  It had estimated reserves of 3038 million barrels of oil and the average cost of
developing these reserves was estimated to be $10 a barrel in present value dollars
(The development lag is approximately two years).

•  The average relinquishment life of the reserves is 12 years.

•  The price of oil was $22.38 per barrel, and the production cost, taxes and royalties
were estimated at $7 per barrel.

•  The bond rate at the time of the analysis was 9.00%.

•  Gulf was expected to have net production revenues each year of approximately 5%
of the value of the developed reserves. The variance in oil prices is 0.03.

Aswath Damodaran
46

 Valuing Undeveloped Reserves!

  Inputs for valuing undeveloped reserves

•  Value of underlying asset = Value of estimated reserves discounted back for period
of development lag= 3038 * ($ 22.38 - $7) / 1.052 = $42,380.44

•  Exercise price = Estimated development cost of reserves = 3038 * $10 = $30,380
million

•  Time to expiration = Average length of relinquishment option = 12 years

•  Variance in value of asset = Variance in oil prices = 0.03

•  Riskless interest rate = 9%

•  Dividend yield = Net production revenue/ Value of developed reserves = 5%

  Based upon these inputs, the Black-Scholes model provides the following
value for the call:

d1 = 1.6548
N(d1) = 0.9510

d2 = 1.0548
N(d2) = 0.8542

  Call Value= 42,380.44 exp(-0.05)(12) (0.9510) -30,380 (exp(-0.09)(12) (0.8542)




= $ 13,306 million

Aswath Damodaran
47

 Valuing Gulf Oil!

  In addition, Gulf Oil had free cashflows to the firm from its oil and gas
production of $915 million from already developed reserves and these
cashflows are likely to continue for ten years (the remaining lifetime of
developed reserves).

  The present value of these developed reserves, discounted at the
weighted average cost of capital of 12.5%, yields:

•  Value of already developed reserves = 915 (1 - 1.125-10)/.125 = $5065.83

  Adding the value of the developed and undeveloped reserves


Value of undeveloped reserves

= $ 13,306 million


Value of production in place

= $ 5,066 million


Total value of firm


= $ 18,372 million


Less Outstanding Debt


= $ 9,900 million


Value of Equity


= $ 8,472 million


Value per share


= $ 8,472/165.3
= $51.25

Aswath Damodaran
48

 Putting Natural Resource Options to the Test!

  The Option Test:

•  Underlying Asset: Oil or gold in reserve

•  Contingency: If value > Cost of development: Value - Dev Cost




If value < Cost of development: 0

  The Exclusivity Test:

•  Natural resource reserves are limited (at least for the short term)

•  It takes time and resources to develop new reserves

  The Option Pricing Test

•  Underlying Asset: While the reserve or mine may not be traded, the commodity is.
If we assume that we know the quantity with a fair degree of certainty, you can
trade the underlying asset

•  Option: Oil companies buy and sell reserves from each other regularly.

•  Cost of Exercising the Option: This is the cost of developing a reserve. Given the
experience that commodity companies have with this, they can estimate this cost
with a fair degree of precision.

  Real option pricing models work well with natural resource options.

Aswath Damodaran
49