Capital budgeting techniques employed by selected South African state-owned companies

Abstract

An analysis of the prior literature revealed few studies on the capital budgeting practices of state-owned companies (SOCs). The goal of this study was therefore to investigate the capital budgeting techniques employed by decision-makers in South African state-owned companies. The results indicated that the NPV and IRR techniques were used by 43% of respondents (the NPV was slightly more popular). WACC emerged as the preferred discount rate for capital budgeting purposes. In considering project risk, state-owned companies seem to prefer sensitivity analysis. It is thus recommended that academics emphasise the importance of NPV as a primary capital budgeting technique.