Chapter 1, Problem 17QA

MULTINATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Citrus Products Inc. is a medium-sized producer of citrus juice drinks with groves in Indian River County, Florida. Until now, the company has confined its operations and sales to the United States; but its CEO, George Gavnor, wants to expand into the Pacific Rim. The first step is to set up sales subsidiaries in Japan and Australia, then to set up a production plant in Japan, and finally to distribute the product throughout the Pacific Kim. The firms financial manager, Ruth Schmidt, is enthusiastic about tho plan, but she worries about the implications of the foreign expansion on the firms financial management process. She has sked you, the firms most recently hired financial analyst, to develop a 1-hour tutorial package that explains the basics of multinational financial management. The tutorial will be presented at the next board of directors meeting. To get you started, Schmidt has given you the following list of questions. a. What is a multinational corporation? Why do firms expand into other countries? b. What are the five major factors that distinguish multinational financial management from financial management as practiced by a purely domestic firm? c. Consider the following illustrative exchange rates: U.5. Dollars Required to Buy One Unit of Foreign Currency Japanese yen 0.009 Australian dollar 0.650 1. Are these currency prices direct quotations or indirect quotations? 2. Calculate the indirect quotations for yen and Australian dollars. 3. What is a cross rate? Calculate the two cross rates between yen and Australian dollars. 4. Assume that Citrus Products can produce a liter of orange juice and ship it to Japan for 1.75. If the firm wants a 50% markup on the product, what should the orange juice sell for in Japan? 5. Now assume that Citrus Products begins producing the same liter of orange juice in Japan. The product costs 250 yen to produce and ship to Australia, where it can be sold for 6 Australian dollars. What is the US. dollar profit on the sale? 6. What is exchange rate risk? d. Briefly describe the current international monetary system. What are the different types of exchange rate systems? e. What is the difference between spot rates and forward rates? When is the forward rate at a premium to the spot rate? When is it at a discount? f. What is interest rate parity? Currently, you can exchange 1 yen for 0.0095 U.S. dollar in the 30-day forward market, and the risk-free rate on 30-day securities is 4% in both Japan and the United States. Docs interest rate parity hold? If not, which securities offer the highest expected return? g. What is purchasing power parity (PPP)? If grapefruit juice costs 2 a liter in the United States and purchasing power parity holds, what should be the price of grapefruit juice in Australia? h. What effect does relative inflation have on interest rates and exchange rates? i. 1. Briefly explain the three major types of international credit markets. 2. Briefly explain how ADKs work. j. What is the effect of multinational operations on capital budgeting decisions? k. To what extent do average capital structures vary across different countries?

MULTINATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Yohe Telecommunications is a multinational corporation that produces and distributes telecommunications technology. Although its corporate headquarters are located in Maitland, Florida, Yohe usually buys its raw materials in several different foreign countries using several different foreign currencies. The matter is further complicated because Yohe often sells its products in other foreign countries. One product in particular, the SY-20 radio transmitter, draws Component X, Component Y, and Component Z (its principal components) from Switzerland, France, and the United Kingdom, respectively. Specifically, Component X costs 165 Swiss francs Component V costs 20 euros, and Component Z costs 105 British pounds. The largest market for the SY-20 is Japan, where the product sells for 50,000 Japanese yen. Naturally. Yohe is intimately concerned with economic conditions that could adversely affect dollar exchange rates. You will find Tables 17.1, 17.2, and 17.3 useful for completing this problem. a. How much in dollars docs it cost Yohe to produce the SY-20? What is the dollar sale price of the SY-20? b. What is the dollar profit that Yohe makes on the sale of the SY-20? What is the percentage profit? c. If the U.S. dollar was to weaken by 10% against all foreign currencies, what would be the dollar profit for the SY-20? d. If the U.S. dollar was to weaken by 10% only against the Japanese yen and remained constant relative to all other foreign currencies, what would be the dollar and percentage profits for the SY-20? e. Using the 180-day forward exchange information from Table 173, calculate the return on 1-year securities in Switzerland assuming the rate of return on 1-year securities in the United States is 4.9%. f. Assuming that purchasing power parity (PPP) holds, what would be the sale price of the SY-20 if it was sold in the United Kingdom rather than Japan?

17. Companies are involved in exporting their product to different parts of the world then setting up a producing facility abroad. Explain what are the advantages and limitation of such strategy.