AAA Corporation and BBB Corporation are identical in every way except their capital structures. AAA Corporation, an all-equity firm, has 45 million shares of stock outstanding, currently worth $50 per share. BBB Corporation uses leverage in its capital structure. The market value of BBB’s debt is $400mil., and its cost of debt is 3.5 percent. Each firm is expected to have earnings before interest and tax of $155mil. in perpetuity. Assume that every investor can borrow at 3.5 percent per year. Corporate tax rate is 35%.

Q18. BBB is about to undertake a new project. Initial outlay for the project is $1.5 billion. The project is expected to generate annual after-tax free cash flows of $65 million indefinitely. If the project has similar risk characteristics to those of BBB company as a whole, and if it could be financed with the same financing proportions that the company currently uses, what would be the project’s net present value (NPV)? (with the rounding, choose the answer that is the closest)