Telefonia móvel 4G no Brasil : avaliação dos investimentos pela teoria das opções reais

Abstract

The telecommunications market in Brazil has been extremely competitive since the privatization of Telebrás in 1998, especially the mobile phone sector. Brazilians own approximately 250 million mobile phones in a country with an estimated population of 200 million people. In 2012, due to these circumstances, Brazil\'s telecommunications regulator (ANATEL) auctioned off the rights to use the 2,500 MHz radio frequency bands. This granted the top bidders the right to operate mobile services using the fourth generation of mobile phone communication technology standards (4G). The technology enables mobile broadband to access the Internet. Auction participants offered R$ 2,93 billion for the right to exploit this frequency band for 15 years. These companies also committed an estimated R$ 20 billion over 7 years to set up the 4G mobile networks throughout Brazil. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasiability of investments in 4G mobile technology in accordance with the Bid Nr. 004/2012/PVCP/SPV ANATEL ( 4G Auction ) by using traditional methods of investment appraisal and the real options, associated with the Monte Carlo simulation. Even though the discounted cash flow method is commonly adopted in the analysis of investments in real assets, this technique is limited due to the fact that it does not allow for the valuation of managerial flexibility present in many projects. This research evaluated the projects of the four companies - Claro, Vivo, TIM and Oi - that won the right to operate the service throughout the national territory. The evaluation process was based on the four-step approach of CA (Copeland and Antikarov). The results indicate that when traditional metrics for evaluating investments were applied, nearly all these projects were unfeasible since they presented low probabilities of achieving a positive NPV (Net Present Value). Nevertheless, the adoption of the real options analysis indicated that positive results can be expected in 80% of the cases. This work was further complemented with an analysis of the risk and return, as well as a study of the effects of volatility on the option value.