Question

Several years ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that the winner of the Massachusetts State Lottery prize had the misfortune to be both bankrupt and in prison for fraud. The balance of the prize was $9,420,713, to be paid in 19 equal annual installments (There were 20 installments, but the winner had already received the first payment). The bankruptcy court judge ruled that the prize should be sold off to the highest bidder and the proceeds to be paid to the creditors.
Required:
a. If the interest rate was 8%, how much would you have been prepared to bid for the prize?
b. Enhance Reinsurance Company was reported to have offered S4.2 million. Use Excel to find the return that the company was looking for.

Answer 1

Answer:

a. If the interest rate was 8%, how much would you have been prepared to bid for the prize?

this is an ordinary annuity:

annual payment = $9,420,713 / 20 = $471,035.65

number of periods = 19 periods

interest rate = 8%

therefore, the present value annuity factor = 9.6036

the present value of the annuity = $471,035.65 x 9.6036 = $4,523,637.97 ≈ $4,523,638

b. Enhance Reinsurance Company was reported to have offered S4.2 million. Use Excel to find the return that the company was looking for.

using the IRR function in Excel, the return that Enhance was looking for was 9.05%