КФ / Лекции / Brealey Myers - Principles Of Corporate Finance 7th Ed (eBook)

Two general articles on corporate risk management are:

C. W. Smith and R. M. Stultz: “The Determinants of Firms’ Hedging Policies,” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 20:391–405 (December 1985).

K. A. Froot, D. Scharfstein, and J. C. Stein: “A Framework for Risk Management,” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 7:22–32 (Fall 1994).

Schaefer’s paper is a useful review of how duration measures are used to immunize fixed liabilities:

S.M. Schaefer: “Immunisation and Duration: A Review of Theory, Performance and Applications,” Midland Corporate Finance Journal, 3:41–58 (Autumn 1984).

The texts that we cited in the readings for Chapter 20 cover futures and swaps as well as options. There are also some useful texts that focus on futures and swaps. They include:

D. Duffie: Futures Markets, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.

D. R. Siegel and D. F. Siegel: Futures Markets, Dryden Press, Chicago, 1990.

C. W. Smith, C. H. Smithson, and D. S. Wilford: Managing Financial Risk, 3rd ed., McGrawHill, Inc., New York, 1998.

The Metallgesellschaft debacle makes fascinating reading. The following three papers cover all sides of the debate:

C. Culp and M. H. Miller: “Metallgesellschaft and the Economics of Synthetic Storage,”

Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 7:62–76 (Winter 1995).

F.Edwards: “The Collapse of Metallgesellschaft: Unhedgeable Risks, Poor Hedging Strategy, or Just Bad Luck?” Journal of Futures Markets, 15:211–264 (May 1995).

FURTHER READING

QUIZ

1. True or false?

a.A perfect hedge of asset A requires an asset B that’s perfectly correlated with A.

b.Hedging transactions in an active futures market have zero or slightly negative NPVs.

c.Longer maturity bonds necessarily have longer durations.

d.The longer a bond’s duration, the lower is its volatility.

e.When you buy a futures contract, you pay now for delivery at a future date.

f.The holder of a futures contract receives the convenience yield on the underlying commodity.

g.The holder of a financial futures contract misses out on any dividend or interest payments made on the underlying security.

2.Yesterday you sold six-month futures on the German DAX stock market index at a price of 5,820. Today the DAX closed at 5,800 and DAX futures closed at 5,840. You get a call from your broker, who reminds you that your futures position is marked to market each day. Is she asking you to pay money, or is she about to offer to pay you?

3.Calculate the value of a six-month futures contract on a Treasury bond. You have the following information:

• Six-month interest rate: 10 percent per year, or 4.9 percent for six months.

• Spot price of bond: 95.

• Coupon payments on the bond over the next six months: Present value of 4.

4.Calculate PV(convenience yield) for magnoosium scrap from the following information:

• Spot price: $2,550 per ton.

• Futures price: $2,408 for a one-year contract.

• Interest rate: 12 percent.

• PV(storage costs): $100 per year.

5.Residents of the northeastern United States suffered record-setting low temperatures throughout November and December 2015. Spot prices of heating oil rose 25 percent, to over $2 a gallon.

a.What effect did this have on the net convenience yield and on the relationship between futures and spot prices?

b.In late 2016 refiners and distributors were surprised by record-setting high temperatures. What was the effect on net convenience yield and spot and futures prices for heating oil?

6.After a record harvest, grain silos are full to the brim. Are storage costs likely to be high or low? What does this imply for the net convenience yield?

7.A year ago a British bank entered into a £50 million five-year interest rate swap. It agreed to pay company A each year a fixed rate of 6 percent and to receive in return LIBOR plus 1 percent. When the bank entered into this swap, LIBOR was 5 percent, but now interest rates have risen, so on a four-year interest rate swap the bank could expect to pay 6 1/2 percent and receive LIBOR plus 1 percent.

a.Is the swap showing a profit or loss to the bank?

b.Suppose that at this point company A approaches the bank and asks to terminate the swap. If there are four annual payments still remaining, how much should the bank charge A to terminate?

8.What is basis risk? In which of the following cases would you expect basis risk to be most serious?

a.A broker owning a large block of Walt Disney common stock hedges by selling index futures.

b.An Iowa corn farmer hedges the selling price of her crop by selling Chicago corn futures.

c.An importer must pay 900 million euros in six months. He hedges by buying euros forward.

1.Why might a large, multinational company choose to insure against common events, such as vehicle accidents, but not against rare events which could cause large losses? Explain briefly.

2.Large businesses spend millions of dollars annually on insurance. Why? Should they insure against all risks or does insurance make more sense for some risks than others?

3.What is meant by “moral hazard” and “adverse selection”? Explain why these effects tend to increase insurance premiums.

4.On some catastrophe bonds, payments are reduced if the claims against the issuer exceed a specified sum. In other cases payments are reduced only if claims against the entire industry exceed some sum. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two structures? Which involves more basis risk? Which may create a problem of moral hazard?

5.“The farmer does not avoid risk by selling wheat futures. If wheat prices stay about $2.80 a bushel, then he will actually have lost by selling wheat futures at $2.50.” Is this a fair comment?

6.Explain the chief differences between futures and forward contracts, e.g., for foreign exchange.

7.List some of the commodity futures contracts that are traded on exchanges. Who do you think could usefully reduce risk by buying each of these contracts? Who do you think might wish to sell each contract?

8.What is a currency swap? An interest rate swap? A default swap? Give an example of how each swap might be used.

9.In August 2001, six-month futures on the Brazilian Bovespa stock index traded at 15,330. Spot was 13,743. The interest rate was 19 percent and the dividend yield was about 4 percent. Were the futures fairly priced?

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1.Phillip’s Screwdriver Company has borrowed $20 million from a bank at a floating interest rate of 2 percentage points above three-month Treasury bills, which now yield 5 percent. Assume that interest payments are made quarterly and that the entire principal of the loan is repaid after five years.

Phillip’s wants to convert the bank loan to fixed-rate debt. It could have issued a fixed-rate five-year note at a yield to maturity of 9 percent. Such a note would now trade at par. The five-year Treasury note’s yield to maturity is 7 percent.

a.Is Phillip’s stupid to want long-term debt at an interest rate of 9 percent? It is borrowing from the bank at 7 percent.

b.Explain how the conversion could be carried out by an interest rate swap. What will be the initial terms of the swap? (Ignore transaction costs and the swap dealer’s profit.)

One year from now mediumand long-term Treasury yields decrease to 6 percent, so the term structure then is flat. (The changes actually occur in month 5.) Phillip’s credit standing is unchanged; it can still borrow at 2 percentage points over Treasury rates.

c.What net swap payment will Phillip’s make or receive?

d.Suppose that Phillip’s now wants to cancel the swap. How much would it need to pay the swap dealer? Or would the dealer pay Phillip’s? Explain.

2.Hoopoe Corporation wants to borrow 100 million Canadian dollars at a fixed rate with a maturity of five years. It calculates that it can make an international bond issue with the following terms:

• Interest: 10 5/8 percent payable annually.

• Maturity: 5 years.

• Issue expenses: .2 percent.

A bank has presented Hoopoe with a proposal for a Swiss franc issue combined with a currency swap into Canadian dollars. The proposed terms for the Swiss franc issue are

• Amount: 200 million Swiss francs.

• Interest: 5 3/8 percent annually.

• Maturity: 5 years.

• Issue expenses: .2 percent.

The counterparty of the swap would raise fixed dollars on the following terms:

• Amount: 100 million Canadian dollars (equivalent to 200 million Swiss francs).

• Interest: 10 5/8 percent annually.

• Maturity: 5 years.

• Issue expenses: .15 percent.

The counterparty would be happy with an all-in cost in Swiss francs of 6.45 percent.

a.Which alternative should Hoopoe take? (Ignore credit risk in your analysis.)

b.Suppose that you are the corporate treasurer of Hoopoe. Discuss the credit risk issues involved in the alternatives.

3.Consider the commodities and financial assets listed in Table 27.6. The risk-free interest rate is 6 percent a year, and the term structure is flat.

a.Calculate the six-month futures price for each case.

b.Explain how a magnoosium producer would use a futures market to lock in the selling price of a planned shipment of 1,000 tons of magnoosium six months from now.

c.Suppose the producer takes the actions recommended in your answer to ( b), but after one month magnoosium prices have fallen to $2,200. What happens? Will the

CHALLENGE QUESTIONS