IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v194y2017icp43-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the trade-off between the leverage effect and real options thinking: A simulation-based model on metal mining investment

Author

Listed:
  • Savolainen, Jyrki
  • Collan, Mikael
  • Kyläheiko, Kalevi
  • Luukka, Pasi

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of financing conditions to managerial flexibility and project value and focuses on the point of view of the equity holder of a mining company. Simulation based analysis is performed with a dynamic system model of a metal mine investment. The leverage effect of the equity holder's discount rate change as a function of the debt/equity ratio is separately modelled. Our empirical results show that the choice of a financing structure is important for the value maximization for the equity holder, since different debt/equity ratios differently condition the management's ability to make operational decisions, such as temporary shut downs, which could raise the value of the mining project. The trade-off between the leverage effect (decreasing need for equity) and real option flexibility (increasing need for working capital) will be scrutinized both theoretically and by using simulation-based analysis for numerical results.

Suggested Citation

  • Savolainen, Jyrki & Collan, Mikael & Kyläheiko, Kalevi & Luukka, Pasi, 2017. "On the trade-off between the leverage effect and real options thinking: A simulation-based model on metal mining investment," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 43-51.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:194:y:2017:i:c:p:43-51
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2017.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527317301627
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijpe.2017.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rossen, Anja, 2015. "What are metal prices like? Co-movement, price cycles and long-run trends," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 255-276.
    2. Trigeorgis, Lenos, 1993. "The Nature of Option Interactions and the Valuation of Investments with Multiple Real Options," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-20, March.
    3. Alberto Moel, 2002. "When Are Real Options Exercised? An Empirical Study of Mine Closings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 35-64, March.
    4. Moyen, Nathalie & Slade, Margaret & Uppal, Raman, 1996. "Valuing risk and flexibility : A comparison of methods," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-2), pages 63-74.
    5. Abdel Sabour, S. A., 2001. "Dynamics of threshold prices for optimal switches: the case of mining," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 209-214, September.
    6. Baur, Dirk G., 2014. "Gold mining companies and the price of gold," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 174-181.
    7. Bengtsson, Jens, 2001. "Manufacturing flexibility and real options: A review," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1-3), pages 213-224, December.
    8. Brennan, Michael J & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 1985. "Evaluating Natural Resource Investments," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(2), pages 135-157, April.
    9. Crowson, Phillip, 2003. "Mine size and the structure of costs," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1-2), pages 15-36.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. De Giovanni, Domenico & Massabò, Ivar, 2018. "Capacity investment under uncertainty: The effect of volume flexibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 165-176.
    2. Chuan-Chuan Ko & Chien-Yu Liu & Zan-Yu Chen & Jing Zhou, 2019. "Sustainable Development Economic Strategy Model for Reducing Carbon Emission by Using Real Options Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Sarkar, Sudipto, 2018. "Optimal DOL (degree of operating leverage) with investment and production flexibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 172-181.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Savolainen, Jyrki, 2016. "Real options in metal mining project valuation: Review of literature," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 49-65.
    2. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    3. Dehghani, Hesam & Ataee-pour, Majid, 2012. "Determination of the effect of operating cost uncertainty on mining project evaluation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 109-117.
    4. Dimitrakopoulos, Roussos G. & Abdel Sabour, Sabry A., 2007. "Evaluating mine plans under uncertainty: Can the real options make a difference?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 116-125, September.
    5. Kuangyuan Zhang & Richard Olawoyin & Antonio Nieto & Andrew N. Kleit, 2018. "Risk of commodity price, production cost and time to build in resource economics," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(6), pages 2521-2544, December.
    6. Dehghani, Hesam & Ataee-pour, Majid & Esfahanipour, Akbar, 2014. "Evaluation of the mining projects under economic uncertainties using multidimensional binomial tree," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 124-133.
    7. Spiros H. Martzoukos & Nayia Pospori & Lenos Trigeorgis, 2024. "Corporate investment decisions with switch flexibility, constraints, and path-dependency," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1223-1250, April.
    8. Miranda, Oscar & Brandão, Luiz E. & Lazo Lazo, Juan, 2017. "A dynamic model for valuing flexible mining exploration projects under uncertainty," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 393-404.
    9. Simone Kelly, 2017. "The market premium for the option to close: evidence from Australian gold mining firms," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(2), pages 511-531, June.
    10. Collan, Mikael, 2004. "Giga-Investments: Modelling the Valuation of Very Large Industrial Real Investments," MPRA Paper 4328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Rahman, Md Lutfur & Lucey, Brian M. & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2021. "Re-examining the real option characteristics of gold for gold mining companies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    12. Agliardi, Rossella, 2006. "Options to expand: Some remarks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 65-72, March.
    13. Miao, Jianjun & Wang, Neng, 2007. "Investment, consumption, and hedging under incomplete markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 608-642, December.
    14. Santos, Lúcia & Soares, Isabel & Mendes, Carla & Ferreira, Paula, 2014. "Real Options versus Traditional Methods to assess Renewable Energy Projects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 588-594.
    15. Xiao, Chang & Florescu, Ionut & Zhou, Jinsheng, 2020. "A comparison of pricing models for mineral rights: Copper mine in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Salvador Cruz Rambaud & Joaquín López Pascual & Juan Carlos Meléndez Rodríguez, 2021. "Sustainability in the Aerospace Sector, a Transition to Clean Energy: The E 2 -EVM Valuation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Delaney, Laura, 2021. "A model of investment under uncertainty with time to build, market incompleteness and risk aversion," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(3), pages 1155-1167.
    18. Driver, Ciaran & Temple, Paul & Urga, Giovanni, 2008. "Real options -- delay vs. pre-emption: Do industrial characteristics matter?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 532-545, March.
    19. Carol Alexander & Xi Chen, 2021. "Model risk in real option valuation," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 1025-1056, April.
    20. Kassar, Ilhem & Lasserre, Pierre, 2004. "Species preservation and biodiversity value: a real options approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 857-879, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:194:y:2017:i:c:p:43-51. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.