“To Hedge or Not to Hedge: The Dilemma Airlines Face when it comes to Jet Fuel”
“GLOBAL FINANCIAL STRATEGIES”
Instructor: Dr. William Hardin III
FLORIDA INTERNACIONAL UNIVERSITY
Professional Master’s in Business Adminstration Program- Panama
May 5th, 2012
Project Outline
Introduction
1. “Hedging” Defined
2. The Hedging Process
1. The Fuel Hedging Decision-making 2. Steps in the Hedging Process 3. Different types of Hedging Strategies 4. The Accounting Aspects of Hedging 5. Formula used in the Spot Pricing of Jet Fuel
3. Pros and Cons Arguments of Hedging Jet Fuel
4. Risk Factors that may affect the Hedging of Jet Fuel.
5. Conclusion
6. Data Analysis,
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A fuel hedge contract allows a large fuel consuming company to establish a fixed or capped cost, via a commodity swap or option. These companies enter into hedging contracts to mitigate their exposure to future fuel prices that may be higher than current prices and/or to establish a known fuel cost for budgeting purposes. If a large fuel consuming company buys a fuel swap and the price of fuel declines, the company will effectively be forced to pay an above-market rate for fuel. If a large fuel consuming company buys a fuel call option and the price of fuel increases, the company will receive a return on the option that offsets their actual cost of fuel. If a large fuel consuming company buys a fuel call option, which requires an upfront premium cost, much like insurance, and the price of fuel decreases, the company will not receive a return on the option but they will benefit from buying fuel at the then lower price.
2. The Hedging Process 2.1. The Fuel Hedging Decision
Fuel hedging is a contractual tool that some fuel consuming companies, such as airlines, use in order to try to stabilize the price they pay for the jet fuel they will need in the future.
If the airlines can predicts that the cost of fuel is going to increase in the future, the airline can sign a fuel hedging contract to purchase (3 months, 6 months, and up to 1 year) of fuel hedges for that period for a specific price and ahead of time. If the price predicted
By using strategies like Fuel hedging in order to turn a variable cost into a fixed cost means that qantas can lock in a certain price for fuel (via contract) and save money if the price of fuel increases. Qantas’ future in efficiency looks to be very promising as an increase in use of E commerce, more efficient planes, and improved economies of scale all work in favour to ensure qantas’ ability to
Based on the 1988 Supreme Court case of Corn Product Refining Co. v. Commissioner (350 U.S. 46; 76 S.Ct. 20; 100 L.Ed. 29), hedging transactions were determined to be used to support business practices of certain commodities. Such hedging transactions are normal for businesses engaged in commodity sales such as coal or corn to protect against market
For interest rate hedging strategy, swaps are used to hedge. And most importantly, interest rate swaps are an agreement between two counterparties exchanging one stream of future interest payments for another. Interest rate swaps can exchange a fixed payment for a floating payment or vice versa. We can also hedge against commodity price risk where this involves purchase of a futures contract, that guarantee a particular price at a certain point in time. In this case, the price is guaranteed and no unexpected loss can occur. Also no gain based on favorable price changes can occur as well. We can also hedge against commodity price risk where this involves purchase of a futures contract, that guarantee a particular price at a certain point in time. In this case, the price is guaranteed and no unexpected loss can occur. Also no gain based on favorable price changes can occur as well. Hedging against investment risk means strategically using instruments in the market to
To mitigate the risk of future commodity price changes it is recommended that Desert Valley adopt a hedging program by purchasing forward contracts. This would allow the company to
Since we need to hedge 75% of the expected fuel consumption over 2008Q1, the amount of
Hedge-funds are essentially investment pools for wealthy individuals that are managed by the best investors in the world. These investors use various strategies in order to increase returns and minimize losses. Hedging by its definition is an investment strategy that essentially uses put options to minimize losses on an investment. By taking an offsetting position on a security, the investor can protect him or herself from a total loss on that investment. Hedging is essentially an investor’s version of car or home insurance. While insurance will not cover your total loss, it prevents you from taking a total loss on your investment. Credit default swaps are a way of using this “hedging” strategy. Credit default swaps are essentially the insurance companies of Wall Street. If a pension fund wanted to loan money to a company that did not have a AAA or AA rating, they could loan money to the company through purchasing a credit default swap. If that company defaulted on the loan then the credit insurers would pay the pension fund the remaining amount on the loan’s interest. In return, the pension fund would have to pay a percentage of the interest they collected on their loan to the credit insurers. The system worked fantastically for both sides until hedge-funds found the ability to profit off of these credit default
Commodity Price Risk Management: HSE enters into commodity price contracts in order to offset fixed or floating prices with market rates to manage exposure to fluctuations in commodity prices. HSE uses derivative commodity instruments to manage exposure to price volatility on a portion of its oil and gas production and firm commitments for the purchase or sale of crude oil and natural gas. Furthermore, HSE’s results will also be impacted by a decrease in the price of crude oil inventory. They have crude oil inventories that are feedstock, held at terminals or part of the in-process inventories at its refineries and at offshore sites. Additionally, they have natural gas inventory in storage that could have an impact on earnings based on changes in natural gas prices. These inventories are subject to a lower of cost or net realizable value test on a monthly basis.
| Competition from low cost airlinesGovernment regulationsPrice volatility in petroleum marketIncreasing security and safety concerns
In order to stay airborne, a passenger airline has to consistently generate profits. Profits come only from paying passengers, hence all stratagems must be customer oriented. In a scenario where there are many airlines competing with each other, one way of attracting passengers is to keep the cost of flying low, while providing value for money. On the other hand, expenses must tightly controlled to reach and stay at the lowest possible. Certain expenses are unavoidable; however, one variable that can be kept low through decisive planning and foresight is the cost of fuel, which, at best, can be called volatile. A good way to achieve this is by hedging fuel cost,
Fuel costs can change rapidly, making it difficult for consumers to adjust to the system. In fact, the petroleum industry is one of the
* Hedging. Hedging with the fuel market could save enough money in one year to offset the next year’s fuel supply and costs.
For the purposes of this report, I analyzed the July corn futures market from a long position in contrast to my short position in the cash market. I took out one contract with a size of 5000 bushels of corn. I tracked this market since January 16th and collected futures and cash market prices throughout that whole period. In addition, I also analyzed hedging with futures and hedging futures with options dating back to February 21st. This report shall cover all aspects of this analysis including a compare and contrast section on each of the net prices from each hedging option.
Most firms hedge at least some of their risks. Hedging can take two basic forms—namely, natural hedging and hedging by means of derivative instruments. The use of derivatives as hedges has expanded greatly in recent years.
From its definition it can be noticed that hedging is a strategy employed by companies in an effort to safeguard their economic position and to prevent the company from the losses which are associated with the unforeseen risks. Companies can hedge against risks which are associated with losses by taking control of their future purchases. The commodity prices vary in different markets and are caused or influenced by different economic factors. Some commodities are very scarce and with the increased depletion subject to the global demand in different foreign markets, the prices are set to be hiked in response to the established demand which positions the companies that use those particular commodities to have cash flow problems.