Slides prepared by April Knill, Ph.D., Florida State University Chapter 17 Risk Management and the Foreign Currency Hedging Decision

Slides prepared by

April Knill, Ph.D., Florida State University

Chapter 17

Risk Management and the Foreign

Currency Hedging Decision

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 17-2

17.1 To Hedge or Not To Hedge

• Hedging = risk mitigation• Forward contracts

• Futures

• Options

• Risk management – should firms hedge? • Modigliani and Miller (1958; 1961) - indifferent

• Usually involves derivative securities, used to take positions that offset the underlying sources of risk



• Hedging• Makes sense for entrepreneurs (assuming

exposure to forex) because• Future forex rates are difficult, if not impossible, to

predict

• Firm is unable to diversify risks as most investors can so for the entrepreneur it is a good enough reason if he/she is risk-averse

• Reducing the variance of profits increases the entrepreneur’s expected utility

• More difficult for publicly held corporations• Hedging must increase the equity value of the firm (e.g.,

one of the terms in ANPV) or it must decrease the market value of debt to be worthwhile



• The Hedging-is-Irrelevant Logic of Modigliani and Miller

• Modigliani-Miller proposition

• If hedging only changes non-systematic risk while leaving systematic risk and expected value of the cash flows unchanged, hedging will not affect firm’s value

• Investors can hedge on their own and they can always undo the hedging the firm does (assuming they have the same opportunity set)

• Problems with theory

• Assumptions are not real world, e.g., individuals don’t always have the same opportunities and even if they did, they aren’t going to pay the same amount for them


17.2 Arguments Against Hedging

• Hedging is costly• Bid-ask spread – larger in forward market

• Salaries and monitoring costs of employees to evaluate hedging alternatives

• Hedging equity risk is difficult, if not impossible• Weehawken Widget Project – either £125 or £75 for

every year from next year into infinity

• E[0.5*£75 + 0.5*£125] = £100

• Discounted @ 10%, that is £1,000 @ $2/£ $2,000

• With a cost of $1,900, profit=$100


Exhibit 17.1 The Value of Weehawken’s Project with Unhedged Cash Flows


• Forex rate can go up or down by $0.20/£ with equal probability

– Expectation is $2.00/£ and discount rate = 10%

– For top-left figure:

– [($2.20/£)*£125] + [($2.20/£)*£1,000] = $2,475

$ Value of time t+1 £ CFs

$ Value of infinite stream of £ CFs (still has same PV)



Exhibit 17.2 The Value of Weehawken’s Project with 2-Year Hedged Cash Flows


Exhibit 17.3 The Value of Weehawken’s Project with 2-Year Hedged Cash Flows


• If Weehawken hedges the 1st two years’ cash flows then the calculation changes:

– Hedge: expectation is $2.00/£ and CF = £100

– For top-left figure:

– [($2.00/£)*£100] + [($2.20/£)*£25] +

– [[($2.00/£)*£100]/1.1] + [[($2.20/£)*£1,000]/1.1] = $2,436.82

$ Value of hedged £CFs $ Value of unhedged £CFs

$ Value of hedged £CFs $ Value of infinite stream of £ CFs (still has same PV)



Exhibit 17.4 The Value of Weehawken’s Project with Infinitely Hedged Cash Flows


• If Weehawken hedges ALL of their cash flows then the calculation becomes:

– Expectation is $2.00/£ and CF = £100

– For top-left figure: – [($2.00/£)*£100] + [($2.20/£)*£25] +

– [[($2.00/£)*£100]/1.1] + [($2.00/£)*£100]/1.12 + … = $2,255

$ Value of hedged £CFs $ Value of unhedged £CFs

$ Value of hedged £CFs $ Value of hedged £CFs

Infinity comes in here




• Hedging can create bad incentives• Firms near financial distress may be motivated for the

higher return that accompanies an unhedged currency position

• They may attempt to profit in currency speculation


17.3 Arguments for Hedging

• Hedging can reduce the firm’s expected taxes

• Tax-loss carry forward: “refund” from government when you are unprofitable• However, NOT paid immediately and is carried

forward - since $1 today is worth more than a $1 tomorrow we’d rather just avoid the loss

• Limit to the amount of time you can carry it forward

• Convex tax code: imposes a larger tax rate on higher income (and smaller on lower income)• Examples include progressive tax system (like ours in

the U.S.) and if tax losses are carried forward


Exhibit 17.5 A Convex Income Tax


– Convex tax code– General principles: Tax benefits are larger

when• Tax code is more convex• Firm’s pretax income is more volatile• Firm’s income occurs in convex region of the tax code



17.3 Arguments for HedgingExample 1

Starpower has a project that provides CHF40M in 1year and costs $19M. Assume forex rate will either be $0.55/CHF or $0.45/CHF (equal probability). Starpower can claim a refund (at tax rate) on its losses.

UNHEDGED[($0.55/CHF)*CHF40MM] - $19M = $3M or[($0.45/CHF)*CHF40MM] - $19M = -$1MThe expectation is [0.5*$3M]+[0.5*-$1M]=$1MIncluding taxes (@35%): [0.5*$3M*(1-0.35)]+[0.5*(-$1M)*(1-0.35)]=$675,000

HEDGED1-year Forward rate=$0.50/CHF[0.5*($0.55/CHF)]+[0.5*($0.45/CHF)] = $0.50/CHFHedging fully: ($0.50/CHF)*CHF40M = $20M – $19M=$1MAfter taxes: $1M*(1-0.35) = $650,000Hedging allows for a reduction in income variance but no after-tax gain


17.3 Arguments for Hedging Example 2 (Example 1 with Convex Taxes)

Same project but Starpower can only claim a 25% refund on its losses. Taxes remain 35%.

UNHEDGED:[($0.55/CHF)*CHF40M] - $19M = $3M or[($0.45/CHF)*CHF40M] - $19M = -$1MThe expected value of the after-tax income:[0.5*$3M*(1-0.35)]+[0.5*(-$1M)*(1-0.25)]=$600,000Expected tax bill = the difference between expected before-tax income of $1M and the expected after-tax income of $600,000:

$1M-$600,000 = $400,000

HEDGED:Hedging fully: ($0.50/CHF)*CHF40M = $20M – $19M=$1MAfter taxes: $1M*(1-0.35) = $650,000 (same as in Example 1)Decrease in tax obligation from hedging: $400,000 - $350,000 = $50,000Convex tax system provides an incentive to get rid of income variance


17.3 Arguments for Hedging Example 3 (Ex. 2 with greater variance)

What if the possible exchange rates change to $0.60/CHF and $0.40/CHF?

UNHEDGED[($0.60/CHF)*CHF40M] - $19M = $5M or[($0.40/CHF)*CHF40M] - $19M = -$3MThe expectation is [0.5*$5M]+[0.5*-$3M]=$1MThe expected value of the after-tax income:[0.5*$5M*(1-0.35)]+[0.5*(-$3M)*(1-0.25)]=$500,000Expected tax bill = $1M-$500,000 = $500,000

HEDGEDHedging fully: ($0.50/CHF)*CHF40M = $20M – $19M=$1MAfter taxes: $1M*(1-0.35) = $650,000 (same as in Example 1)Increase in after-tax earnings from hedging: $150,000The more volatile the income, the greater the expected tax savings



• Hedging can lower the costs of financial distress

• By reducing probability a firm will encounter distress, i.e., the expected costs of financial distress (Smith and Stulz, 1985)

• Hedging can improve the firm’s future investment decisions

• If firm did not hedge and its value fell, (+) NPV projects may be missed

• Froot, Scharfstein and Stein (1993) argue that hedging raises firm value in that it provides a definite stream of income to finance growth opportunities such as R&D activities



• Hedging can change the assessment of a firm’s managers• DeMarzo and Duffie (1995) find that manager

quality is gauged by earnings information. Hedging increases the informational content of a firm’s profits about managers’ ability


17.4 The Hedging Rationale of Real Firms

• Leading pharmaceutical with $103.7 Billion in sales (1988) in an industry that was not concentrated

• Exposure• 70 subsidiaries around the world

• 50% of revenue from foreign sources

• Period of dollar strengthening

• Price takers

• One idea: to develop natural operating hedges• Using operations to provide a better balance between costs and

revenues (in specific currencies)

• Not possible because they wanted to keep most of the R&D in the U.S.


17.4 The Hedging Rationale of Real FirmsMerck’s 5-Step Procedure

1. Develop forecasts to determine probability of adverse exchange rate movements

• Consider economic fundamentals, government interference, past forex rates, professional forecasts

2. Assess the impact of exchange rate changes on firm’s 5-year strategic plan

• Sensitivity analysis

3. Decide whether to hedge currency exposure

• Hedge on a case by case basis

4. Select appropriate hedging instrument

• Options since they could then benefit from potential gains of a weakening dollar

5. Simulate alternative hedging programs to select most cost effective

• Long-term options, avoid far-out-of-the-money options and partially self-insure


17.5 Hedging Trends

• Information from surveys• Nance, Smith and Smithson (1993)

• Large R&D firms hedge

• Highly levered firms hedge

• Firms with higher dividend yields hedge

• The Wharton/CIBC Survey

• 83% of large firms hedge

• 12% of smaller firms hedge

• Hedging contains fixed costs smaller firms may not want to bear

• Evidence that operational hedging is undertaken


17.5 Hedging Trends

• Geczy, Minton and Schrand (1997) • 41% use swaps, forwards, futures, options or combination of these

• Firms with greater growth opportunities are more likely to use derivatives

• Issuing debt in foreign currency serves same function as hedging instruments

• Bartram, Brown and Fehle (2009)• Tax factors and high leverage are important

• Large firms with high M/B ratios

• Firms with larger foreign exchange exposure

• Financial effects of hedging• Allayannis and Weston (2001) find that hedging

increases the value of firms by 5%


17.5 Hedging Trends

• Deciding whether to hedge or not• What is industry norm and is there a good reason to

divert from it?

• Is your competition foreign or domestic?

• Will changes in the real exchange rate inhibit your competitiveness?

Documents

Slides prepared by April Knill, Ph.D., Florida State University Chapter 17 Risk Management and the Foreign Currency Hedging Decision