The Aim of Carry Trade

Page 3: Introduction to the Financial System Page 7: Commercial Banks Page 12: The Share Market and the Corporation Page 15: Corporations Issuing Equity into the Share Market Page 19: Investors in the Share Market Page 24: Short-term Debt Page 28: Medium- to Long-term Debt Page 32: Interest Rate Determination and Forecasting Page 37: The Foreign Exchange Market Page 40: Factors that Influence the Exchange Rate Page 42: Futures Contracts and Forward Rate Agreements Page 47: Options

The goal of this case is to help Sandra Meyer develop a presentation to address Henry Bosse’s concerns about international investments. The general idea is to demonstrate to Henry the benefits of international diversification, if any. To achieve this goal, you need to have a view on 1) the impact of foreign exchange (FX) rates on the return and risk of international investments, and 2) the impact of having more assets on the return and risk of the investment portfolio To form views on these two points, answer the following questions: I. The impact of FX rates on the risk and return of foreign investments 1a) Using data in Appendix A, calculate the

The Balance of Payments in India mainly relies on services exports, remittances and the course capital flows, both foreign direct investments (FDI) and FII. It is very essential that all market participants, such as banks and other intermediaries be provided with the wherewithal so that they can undertake a risk management in a way that is scientific. One of the ways to access domestic, foreign exchange markets is to hedge on the underlying foreign exchange exposures. In addition, the facilities that are available as the booking of forward contracts were included in the domestic forex market in order to evolve and acquire volumes and depth (Sumanth, 2012). Some of the newer hedging instruments have put in place swaps and options in the

26. A financial manager has detrermined that the appropriate rate discount for a foreign project is 17 percent. However, that discount rate applies in the United States using dollars. What discount rate should be used in the foreign country using the foreign currency? The inflation rate in the United States and in the foreign country is expected to be 3 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

The current 50% hedging policy executed at the fund level has served well for OTPP for the past ten years, contributing to the fund’s positive returns. The FX Hedge Program not only has minimized the downside risk, but has also limited the upside potential. If OTPP decided not to implement a hedging program in 1996, they would have lost about $983 million CAD over the ten year period (1995-2005) which is valued at 2% of the portfolio. With the hedging program, OTPP was able to reduce the overall loss to about $469 million CAD, but also limited the gain from the depreciation of the pound.(Exhibit 1) Hedging is an excellent short-term risk minimizing strategy for long term investors, sustaining a continual payout of pensions during volatile times in OTPP’s invested currency markets. Currently, approximately 21% of OTPP’s net assets are exposed to foreign currency risk. Consequently, it is essential that OTPP maintain a risk management program of hedging, as slight currency fluctuations can significantly affect the value of the fund. Similarly to continual renewal of swaps, hedging can be a very expensive risk management strategy.

There are lots of methods to solve the changes in foreign currency and interest rates issue, however, derivative financial instruments are the major tunes Nike enterprise has used to tackle this issue. Despite the fact that this approach does not wipe out comprehensively the risk of foreign exchange, Nike enterprise still utilize it to minimize or delay the negative consequences. Specifically, the derivative financial instruments comprise embedded derivatives, interest rate swap, and foreign exchange forwards and options contracts (Nike annual report, 2014).

3. If the interest rate is 3% and the foreign debt is 30% of the

Interest rate swaps are very popular due to the arbitrage opportunities they provide. Due to varying levels of creditworthiness in companies, there is often a positive quality spread differential, which allows both parties to benefit from an interest rate swap. In the case of B.F. Goodrich and Rabobank the QSD was +1.675% (Refer to Exhibit C), indicating that the swap of the interest rates is in the interest of both parties. The arbitrage in affect between the two creditworthy firms moves the USD and the Euro currencies closer to purchasing power parity. This inturn contributes to the market becoming more efficient as trading institutions take action on potential price mismatches.

AIFS is an American based company that offers travel abroad and exchange study services to both college and high school students. While AIFS’s revenues are denominated in American Dollars (USD), most of their costs are in foreign currencies as Euros (EUR) and British Pounds (GBP). Consequently, foreign exchange hedging has a crucial importance for the company because it provides protection against different types of risk that derive from its activity.

Back to the case, the coupon rate of Swiss Franc is much lower than other currencies. But it is not the standard of evaluating which currency should be borrowed. We will use forward rates computed from the parity to evaluate the borrowing cost of each currency and the currency has the lowest cost should be chosen. The basic known information is listed as following:

Nestlé S.A. is a Swiss company and owns a prestigious position being the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness group (Nestlé, 2016). According to its annual report (2015), this company is exposed to many risks caused by movements in foreign currency exchange rates, interest rate and market prices. The foreign exchange risk comes from transactions and translations of foreign operations in Swiss Francs (CHF). The interest rate risk faces the borrowings at fixed and variable rates. The market price risk comes from commodity price and equity price. The former risk arises from world commodity market for the supplies of coffee, cocoa beans, sugar and others. The later risk arises from the fluctuations of the prices of investments held. (Nestle annual reports, 2015). Thus, financial derivatives instruments are used by this multinational corporation in order to hedge these risks.

| • Earn interest return from USD deposits: = 60,018,756 × 0.01652 = 495,155• Withdraw all USD deposits with interest: = 60,018,756 + 495,155 = 60,513,911•

The foreign exchange market is a worldwide decentralized over-the-counter financial market for the trading of currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends. The foreign exchange market determines the relative values of different currencies. (wiki.org)

Consider a world with two currencies, the USD ($) and the GBP (£), one-period interest rates in the two currencies given by i($,1) and i(£,1) and spot and one-period forward rates in $/£ defined by St and Ft,1

International Financial Management Trial Exam Closed Book Examination INCLUDEPICTURE uvafileserverjligter1DataOnderwijsInternational Financeif2008sbriederLocal SettingsTempRarDI04.890ABS-logo.gif MERGEFORMAT Closed Book Examination Answer as brief and concise as possible redundant or superfluous remarks may lead to a lower score. The maximum score per problem is given between parentheses. The maximum score of the whole exam is 100 points. QUESTION 1 - 20 points SHAPE MERGEFORMAT This graph depicts the REAL value of the broad index which is a weighted average of the foreign exchange values of the U.S. dollar against the currencies of a large group of major U.S. trading partners. a) Consider the following table of price levels,