A company owes 2 more payments of $15,000 each on an instalment purchase they made for a piece of equipment.One payment is due tomorrow and the last one a year from now.The company is going to offer the equipment manufacturer one lump-sum payment tomorrow for both payments.If interest rates are 8% compounded semi-annually, the amount the company should offer to pay tomorrow is closest to:

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The company should calculate the present value of the two payments using the given interest rate to find the lump-sum amount. The first payment of $15,000 is due tomorrow, so its present value is $15,000. The second payment's present value needs to be calculated using the formula for present value: PV = FV / (1 + r)^n, where FV is the future value, r is the interest rate per period, and n is the number of periods. The annual interest rate is 8%, so the semi-annual rate is 4% or 0.04. The second payment is a year away, so there are 2 periods (n=2). The present value of the second payment is $15,000 / (1 + 0.04)^2 = $15,000 / 1.0816 ≈ $13,868. The total amount to offer is the sum of the two present values: $15,000 + $13,868 = $28,868.

A Company Owes 2 More Payments of $15,000 Each on an Instalment