QUESTION #1
Does the Universal Circuits’ Irish controller have a convincing argument for the weakness of the dollar? Why or why not? How would you interpret the evidence? The controller of the Irish division does have a valid point when stating that the U.S. dollar is in a vulnerable position due to the fact that its trade deficit is currently in excess of $100 billion and growing. (see Exhibit 1). While Universal Circuits’ chief financial officer, Joe Merrill, is correct when stating that the dollar is in the middle of its twenty-year range, he never mentioned which countries currency he was comparing it to. When compared to the Irish punt, which the controller and the company have a vested interest in it is clear that over the last
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This being said, Universal Circuits’ economic exposure can affect its price competitiveness.
From class, translation risk comes from the translation of the value of the asset from the foreign currency to the domestic currency. When the Punt/US$ exchange rate changes, Universal Circuits’ assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses have to be recalculated and restated.
According to Investopedia, transaction exposure is defined as the risk faced by companies in international trade, that currency exchange rates will change after the companies have already entered into financial obligations. Such exposure to fluctuating exchange rates can lead to major losses for the firm. With this being said, Universal Circuit’s transaction risk is low because its sales invoices are in US dollars and on average, the affiliates pay the Irish branch in fifty five days.
Why isn’t the Irish subsidiary’s functional currency the Irish punt? Through the Abbreviated Operational Organization Chart, Exhibit 8, Universal Circuit’s Operations are divided in two: the United States and Ireland. Due to the fact that the Irish operations are directly linked to the US parent company, it would make sense that the Irish subsidiary has the US dollar as their functional currency. Furthermore, if we suppose that all expenses were indeed in punts, the Irish subsidiary would then be exposed to a higher degree of both economic and translation risk. This being said, the Irish subsidiary’s profits would be
dollar was close to an eight year shortage against the real, having lost more than 33% of its value during 2009 alone. During the past 12 month era, the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar (USD) has diverse from a low of BRL R $1.5310 to in height of BRL $1.7790. During 2010, the United States dollar typically kept an everyday exchange rate between (BRL) R$1.70 and (BRL) R$1.80, occasionally reducing below the (BRL) R$1.70 level.
General Motors Corporation, the world’s largest automaker, has an extensive global outreach, which places the firm in competition with automakers worldwide, and subjects itself to significant exchange rate exposure. In particular, despite most of its revenues and production being derived from North America, depreciating yen rates pose problems for the firm indirectly through economic exposure. While GM possesses ‘passive’ hedging strategies for balance sheet and income statement exposures, management has not yet quantified or recognized solutions to possible losses from the indirect competitive exposure it now shared with Japanese automakers in the U.S import
Chapter 11: Global negotiations leave groups more fortunate. A government that is purposefully maintaining inflated currency is robbing buyers of imports and creators of exports. A deflated value has an opposing effect, making imports cheaper and exports less challenging. One piece of currency across the west reduces negotiations and encourages price transparency. However, the United States as an individual country are
Exchange Rates: The Exchange Rates are other important global factors for which company’s ultimate revenue is affected. For example sudden major change in the Exchange rate of UK with other countries is a great threat or facility for TESCO PLC business.
This case explores the operating exposure of Jaguar PLC in 1984, just as the government is about to relinquish control and take the company public via an IPO. The primary concern of the CFO is that Jaguar sells over 50% of its cars in the US, while its production costs and factories are U.K.-based. This currency mismatch creates operating exposure for the firm that needs to be hedged.
On the other hand, the peso devaluation will not have that much of a positive effect on Farmington (Antilles) N.V. as the peso depreciates relative to the USD. The result is the subsidiary being negatively impacted as the USD/peso exchange rate is rising, as they convert revenue earned in pesos to USD to deposit into U.S. bank accounts. This facility had almost 4 million MXN receivables at the end of the year. The 1994 average exchange rate is 3.5 MXN/USD, where these 4 million MXNs would equate to approximately 1.14 million USD. When the exchange rate values the devalued peso at 5.0 MXN/USD, these 4 million MXNs are only equal to 0.80 million USDs, showing a loss of more than 300,000 USDs. When the exchange rate changes from 4.0 to 5.0 MXN/USD, we can see the loss the company would experience, and thus the negative impact on this facility.
3. How are multi-currency cash flows, currency risk and political risk being taken into account in our valuation model?
Due to the geographic diversity of countries where BHP Billiton has extended to, the variation of foreign exchange rate obviously plays a crucial role on its financial performance. According to the annual report of BHP Billiton (2015), US dollar is not only the functional currency utilized in majority of sales and transaction, but also the presentation
Economic exposure is the change in expected cash flows arising because of an unexpected change in exchange rates. Aside from existing obligations of the firm which will be settled in foreign currencies at
All the future computations are in comparison with the “impact zero” scenario of a rate of USD 1,22/EUR and a volume of 25 000 sales. (Exhibit 2)
This case shows us that apart from transaction, translation and economic exposure to currency risk, firms also have the very real strategic impact on their competitive position from competitive exposure. Apart from GM’s exposure to the yen which is reflected in their financial statements, their competitive position vis-à-vis Japanese manufacturers is affected by a potentially declining yen. This is because a declining yen reduces the Japanese manufacturers’ $ cost, enabling them to pass on some of the benefit to US customers and thus taking some of GM’s market share. This will impact GM’s top and bottom line. However, GM has a difficult decision regarding managing this risk.
Breitfelder, M. (1998). The Euro Currency Age: Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Businesses. Business America, 119 (7), 33.
From the ancient period, the United States of America grew on pillars set by men with philosophy in the occult. For instance, the members of Freemasonry and those from the other secret societies; that saw the potential in the U.S is the New Jerusalem. They foresaw the United States future as a beacon as compared to the other nations in the world, guiding the globe in the formation of the admired New World Order of enlightenment, peace and democracy. Many people would today agree with the fact that the U.S indeed in different ways is fulfilling its set role already. If nothing else attached to this, most people around the world would agree that the American dollar dominates the world financially, and among the world currencies, the dollar is the King.
1) Merton Electronics is subject to transaction exposure. Transaction exposure is the gains or losses realized from the settlement of specific transactions that are denominated in a foreign currency. There are two main types of transaction exposure: 1) Purchasing or selling on credit goods denominated in a foreign currency 2) Borrowing or lending funds when repayments is going to be made in foreign currency. In respects to Merton’s Yen payments they are subject to transaction exposure. Merton imports a majority of its products from Japan. This results in payments due to suppliers that are denominated in Yen. Merton has locked in outstanding transactions with Fuji and Goldstone that would be
2. Different voice raised from some staffers at headquarters, who insisted on dollar funding. They believed that because Semiconductor's business started from USA, they should go along with home currency--USD. The business of the firm is "dollar driven" and can get more benefits, such as low costs, from dollar denominated debt.