Chapter 17, Problem 1IEE

The chapter demonstrated that a firm borrowing in a foreign currency could potentially end up paying a very different effective rate of interest than what it expected. Using the same baseline values of a debt principal of SF1.5 million, a one year period, an initial spot rate of SF1.5000/$, a 5.000% cost of debt, and a 34% tax rate, what is the effective cost of debt for one year for a U.S. dollar-based company if the exchange rate at the end of the period was: a. SF1.5000/$ b. SF1.4400/$ c. SF1.3860/$ d. SF1.6240/%

Suppose that California Co., a U.S. based MNC, seeks to capitalize a difference in interest rates between euros and British pounds via the use of a carry trade. In particular, after 1 month, funds invested in euros will yield a 0.50% percent return, while funds invested in pounds will yield a return of 2.00% percent. Currently the spot rate of the British pound is $1.00 while the spot rate of the euro is $0.80. In other words, the pound is worth 1.25 euros. California Co. expects these spot rates to remain constant over the next month.   After repaying their euro loan, California Co. has 211,200 pounds remaining. Assume that the exchange rate is still $1.00 per pound. These pounds are equivalent to $   , which represents a profit of $    over the initial $200,000 that California Co. used from their own funds.

PIMCO gives the following example of an Inflation Linked Bond (ILB), called a Treasury Inflation Protected Security (TIPS) in the US. "How do ILBs work? An ILB’s explicit link to a nationally-recognized inflation measure means that any increase in price levels directly translates into higher principal values. As a hypothetical example, consider a $1,000 20-year U.S. TIPS with a 2.5% coupon (1.25% on semiannual basis), and an inflation rate of 4%. The principal on the TIPS note will adjust upward on a daily basis to account for the 4% inflation rate. At maturity, the principal value will be $2,208 (4% per year, compounded semiannually). Additionally, while the coupon rate remains fixed at 2.5%, the dollar value of each interest payment will rise, as the coupon will be paid on the inflation-adjusted principal value. The first semiannual coupon of 1.25% paid on the inflation-adjusted principal of $1,020 is $12.75, while the final semiannual interest payment will be 1.25% of $2,208, which…