Hedging Strategy For Commodity Risk (J&L Railroad (UVA-F-1053)) Study Questions

Hedging Strategy for Commodity Risk (J&L Railroad (UVA-F-1053)) Study Questions:
1. Should J&L hedge all of its exposure to diesel fuel for the ensuing year? What percentage of the 210 million gallons would you hedge?
2. What are the pros and cons of using NYMEX contracts versus using the risk-management products offered by KCNB? Is the use of a monthly average price a net advantage or disadvantage to J&L? What about the bank?
3. Using the estimate of 17.5 million gallons per month, how would you construct a futures hedge for the next 12 months? How would you construct a commodity-swap hedge?
4. Should Matthews use a cap as a hedge? What strike price for the cap would you recommend she choose?
5. If Matthews wants to minimize the cost of hedging, should she use a collar? What cap and floor strike prices would you recommend using?
  • UVA-F-1053 Rev. Aug. 18, 2009

     

     

     

    This disguised case was revised and updated by Rick Green based on an earlier version adapted from a Supervised

    Business Study written by Jeannine Lehman under the direction of Professor Kenneth Eades. Funding was provided

    by the L. White Matthews Fund for finance case writing. Copyright  1994 by the University of Virginia Darden

    School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to

    sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

    used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

    recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Rev. 8/09.

     

     

     

    J&L RAILROAD

     

     

    It was Saturday, April 25, 2009, and Jeannine Matthews, chief financial officer at J&L

    Railroad (J&L), was in the middle of preparing her presentation for the upcoming board of

    directors meeting on Tuesday. Matthews was responsible for developing alternative strategies to

    hedge the company’s exposure to locomotive diesel-fuel prices for the next 12 months. In

    addition to enumerating the pros and cons of alternative hedging strategies, the board had asked

    for her recommendation for which strategy to follow.

     

    Fuel prices had always played a significant role in J&L’s profits, but management had

    not considered the risk important enough to merit action. During February as the board reviewed

    the details of the company’s performance for 2008, they discovered that, despite an increase of

    $154 million in rail revenues, operating margin had shrunk by $114 million, largely due to an

    increase in fuel costs (Exhibits 1 and 2). Having operating profit fall by 11% in 2008 after it had

    risen 9% in 2007 was considered unacceptable by the board, and it did not want a repeat in 2009.

     

    Recently in a conversation with Matthews, the chairman of the board had expressed his

    personal view of the problem:

     

    Our business is running a railroad, not predicting the strength of an oil cartel or

    whether one Middle East nation will invade another. We might have been lucky in

    the past, but we cannot continue to subject our shareholders to unnecessary risk.

    After all, if our shareholders want to speculate on diesel fuel prices, they can do

    that on their own; but I believe fuel-price risk should not be present in our stock

    price. On the other hand, if the recession continues and prices drop further, we

    could increase our profit margins by not hedging.

     

    Diesel-fuel prices had peaked in early July 2008 but then had trended downward as a

    result of the worldwide recession and softening demand. By January 2009, diesel-fuel prices had

    fallen to their lowest level since early 2005. At February’s meeting, the board had decided to

    wait and see how the energy markets would continue to react to the recession and softening

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    demand. By March, however, oil and diesel-fuel prices had begun to rebound, so the board

    charged Matthews with the task of proposing a hedging policy at the meeting on April 28.

     

    It was industry practice for railroads to enter into long-term contracts with their freight

    customers, which had both good and bad effects. On the positive side, railroads could better

    predict available resources by locking in revenues in advance. On the negative side, fixed-price

    contracts limited railroads’ profit margins and exposed them to potentially large profit swings if

    any of their costs changed. In this regard, diesel fuel was a particularly troublesome cost for

    railroads, because it represented a large cost item that also was difficult to predict due to the

    volatility of fuel prices.

     

    An ideal solution to the fuel-price risk would be for railroads to enter into long-term

    fixed-price contracts with their fuel suppliers. A fixed-price contract with suppliers when

    combined with the fixed-price contracts with freight customers would serve to steady future

    profits. Moreover, by contracting with fuel suppliers to deliver all of J&L’s fuel needs at a fixed

    price, management could be assured of meeting its fuel budget numbers at year’s end. At times,

    fuel suppliers had agreed to such contracts, but over the years, J&L had not been satisfied with

    the results. The problem was that when fuel prices had risen substantially, many suppliers

    walked away from their commitments leaving J&L with a list of three unattractive options:

     

    1. Force compliance: J&L could take the supplier to court to enforce the contract; however, many suppliers were thinly capitalized, which meant that the legal action against them

    could put them into bankruptcy. As a result, J&L might get little or nothing from the

    supplier and yet would be saddled with significant legal fees.

    2. Negotiate a new price: This usually meant that J&L would agree to pay at or near the current market price, which was equivalent to ignoring the original contract; plus it set a

    bad precedent for future contracts.

    3. Walk away and buy the fuel on the open market from another supplier: This choice avoided “rewarding” the supplier for defaulting on its contract but was functionally

    equivalent to never having the contract in the first place.

     

    Based on this history, J&L’s board decided to “assume the fuel suppliers are not the

    answer to our fuel price problem.” The board then asked Matthews to explore other alternatives

    to manage the fuel risk and preserve J&L’s relationships with the fuel suppliers.

     

    Mathews had determined that, if J&L were to hedge, it could choose between two basic

    strategies. The first was to do the hedging in-house by trading futures and options contracts on a

    public exchange. This presented a number of tradeoffs, including the challenge of learning how

    to trade correctly. The second was to use a bank’s risk management products and services. This

    would cost more but would be easier to implement. For either alternative, she would need to

    address a number of important details, including how much fuel to hedge and how much risk

    should be eliminated with the hedge.

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    Railroad Industry

    Railroads hauled record amounts of freight in 2006 and 2007 and began to encounter

    capacity constraints. In 2008, the industry hauled nearly 2-billion tons of freight, although rail

    traffic declined due to weakness in the economy. The transportation of coal was by far the

    number one commodity group carried. Other significant commodity groups were chemicals,

    farm products, food, metallic ores, nonmetallic minerals, and lumber, pulp, and paper products.

     

    Freight and unit trains had expanded the industry since deregulation in the 1980s. Rail

    carriers served as long-distance haulers of intermodal freight, carrying the freight containers for

    steamship lines, or trailers for the trucking industry. Unit train loads were used to move large

    amounts of a single commodity (typically 50 or more cars) between two points using more

    efficient locomotives. A unit train would be used, for example, to move coal between a coal

    mine and an electric generating plant.

     

    Several factors determined a railroad’s profitability: government regulation, oligopolistic

    competition within the industry, and long-term contracts with shippers and suppliers. The

    railroad industry had a long history of price regulation; the government had feared the

    monopolistic pricing that had driven the industry to the brink of ruin in the 1970s. Finally

    recognizing the intense competition among most rail traffic, Congress passed the Staggers Rail

    Act of 1980, allowing railroads to manage their own assets, to price services based on market

    demand, and earn adequate revenues to support their operations. America’s freight railroads paid

    almost all of the costs of tracks, bridges, and tunnels themselves. In comparison, trucks and

    barges used highways and waterways provided and maintained by the government.

     

    After the Staggers Act was passed, railroad fuel efficiency rose 94%. By 2009, a freight

    train could move a ton of freight 436 miles on a single gallon of locomotive diesel fuel,

    approximately four times as far as it could by truck. The industry had spent considerable money

    on the innovative technology that improved the power and efficiency of locomotives and

    produced lighter train cars. Now, a long freight train could carry the same load as 280 trucks

    while at the same time producing only one-third the greenhouse-gas emissions.1

     

    Market share was frequently won or lost solely on the basis of the price charged by

    competing railroads. Although rarely more than two or three railroads competed for a particular

    client’s business, price competition was often fierce enough to prohibit railroads from increasing

    freight prices because of fuel-price increases. But, as fuel prices during 2008 climbed higher and

    faster than they had ever done before, there was some discussion in the railroad industry

    regarding the imposition of fuel surcharges when contracts came up for renewal. So far,

    however, none of the major carriers had followed up the talk with action.

     

    1 Association of American Railroads, http://www.freightrailworks.org.

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    J&L Railroad

    J&L Railroad was founded in 1928 when the Jackson and Lawrence rail lines combined

    to form one of the largest railroads in the country. Considered a Class I railroad, J&L operated

    approximately 2,500 miles of line throughout the West and the Midwest. Although publicly

    owned, J&L was one of the few Class I railroads still managed by the original founding families.

    In fact, two of the family members still occupied seats on its board of directors. During the

    periods 1983–89, 1996–99, and 2004–08, J&L had invested significant amounts of capital into

    replacing equipment and refurbishing roadways. These capital expenditures had been funded

    either through internally generated funds or through long-term debt. The investment in more

    efficient locomotives was now paying off, despite the burden of the principal and interest

    payments.

     

    J&L had one of the most extensive intermodal networks, accounting for approximately

    20% of revenues during the last few years, as compared to the Class I industry average of 10%.

    Transportation of coal, however, had accounted for only 25% to 30% of freight revenues. With

    the projected increase in demand for coal from emerging economies in Asia, management had

    committed to increase revenues from coal to 35% within three years. That commitment was now

    subject to revision due to slowing global economic activity and the recent fall in energy prices.

     

     

    Exchange-Traded Contracts

    J&L’s exposure to fuel prices during the next 12 months would be substantial. Matthews

    estimated that the company would need approximately 17.5 million gallons of diesel fuel per

    month or 210 million gallons for the coming year. This exposure could be offset with the use of

    heating oil futures and option contracts that were traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange

    (NYMEX) (Exhibits 3 and 4). NYMEX did not trade contracts on diesel fuel, so it was not

    possible to hedge diesel fuel directly. Heating oil and diesel fuel, however, were both distillates

    of crude oil with very similar chemical profiles and highly correlated market prices (Exhibit 5).

    Thus, heating-oil futures were considered an excellent hedging instrument for diesel fuel.

     

    Futures allowed market participants to contract to buy or sell a commodity at a future

    date at a predetermined price. If market participants did not want to buy a commodity today

    based on its spot price, the current market price, they could use the futures market to contract to

    buy it at a future date at the futures price. A futures price reflected the market’s forecast of what

    the spot price was expected to be at the contract’s maturity date. Many factors influenced the

    spot price and futures prices, both of which changed constantly depending on the market news.

    With current market conditions, the futures market was expecting price to trend up from the spot

    of $1.36 to an average of $1.52 over the next 12 months.

     

    A trader who wanted to buy a commodity would take a “long” position in the contract,

    whereas a seller would take a “short” position. Because J&L’s profits fell when fuel prices

    increased, the company could offset its exposure by taking long positions in heating-oil futures.

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    For example, instead of waiting two months to buy fuel on the open market at the going price,

    J&L could enter into the July futures contract on April 25 to buy heating oil at $ 1.4138/gallon

    (Exhibit 3). Therefore, when the contract matured in two months,2 J&L could buy heating oil at

    exactly $1.4138/gallon regardless of the price of heating oil at the time. This could work for or

    against J&L depending on whether prices rose or fell during the two months. For example, if at

    maturity of the contract, heating oil was selling at $1.4638, J&L would have benefited by

    $.05/gallon by owning the futures. If heating oil was selling for $1.3638 at maturity, J&L would

    have lost $.05/gallon on the futures. In either case, however, J&L would pay exactly $1.4138 per

    gallon and would face no uncertainty about the net price paid after entering into the July futures

    contract.

     

    Fuel producers or distributors who wanted to fix their selling price would take a short

    position in the fuel futures. Alternatively, the seller might be a speculator who believed that the

    spot price of fuel at maturity would end up being lower than the current futures price. In either

    case, futures was a zero-sum game because one party’s gain exactly equals the other party’s loss.

    As long as the futures price was an unbiased estimate of the future spot price, the expected

    payoff at maturity was zero for both the long and short side of the contract. Thus, although the

    buyer and seller were required to pay a modest fee to the exchange to enter a futures contract, no

    money was exchanged between buyers and sellers at the outset. If the futures price increased

    over time, the buyer would collect, and if the futures price decreased, the seller would collect.

    When the contract matured, it was rare for the buyer to request physical delivery of the

    commodity, rather the vast majority of contracted futures were cash settled.

     

    NYMEX futures created a few problems for J&L management. First, because J&L would

    have to use heating-oil contracts to hedge its diesel-fuel exposure, there would be a small amount

    of risk created by the imperfect match of the prices of the two commodities. This “basis,”

    however, was minimal owing to the high correlation historically between the two price series. Of

    greater concern was that NYMEX contracts were standardized with respect to size and maturity

    dates. Each heating-oil futures contract was for the delivery of 42,000 gallons and matured on

    the last business day of the preceding month. Thus, J&L faced a maturity mismatch because the

    hedge would only work if the number of gallons being hedged was purchased specifically on the

    day the futures contract matured. In addition, J&L faced a size mismatch because the number of

    gallons needed in any month was unlikely to equal an exact multiple of 42,000 gallons.

     

    Some institutional features of NYMEX futures contracts had to be considered as well.

    NYMEX futures were “marked to market” daily, which meant that every investor’s position was

    settled daily, regardless of whether the position was closed or kept open. Daily marking-to-

    market limited the credit risk of the transaction to a single day’s movement of prices. To further

    reduce the credit risk, the exchange required margin payments as collateral. When a contract was

    initially opened, both parties were required to post an initial margin equal to approximately 5%

    or less of the contract value. At the end of each trading day, moneys were added or subtracted

    from the margin account as the futures trader’s position increased or decreased in value. If the

    2 NYMEX futures expired on the last trading day of the previous month; therefore, the July futures matured on

    June 30, 2009.

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    value of the position declined below a specified maintenance level, the trader would be required

    to replenish the margin to its initial margin level. Thus, the combination of daily marking-to-

    market and the use of margins effectively eliminated any credit risk for exchange-traded futures

    contracts. Still, the daily settlement process created a cash-flow risk because J&L might have to

    make cash payments well in advance of the maturity of a contract.

     

    In addition to futures contracts, it was possible to buy NYMEX options on the futures. A

    call option gave the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to go long on the underlying

    commodity futures at a given price (the strike price) on or before the expiration date. A put

    option gave the buyer the right to go short on the futures at the strike price. The typical futures

    option expired a few days prior to the expiration of the underlying futures contract to give the

    counterparties time to offset their positions on the futures exchange. Options were offered at a

    variety of strike prices and maturities (Exhibit 4). Unlike the underlying futures contract, puts

    and calls commanded a market price called the premium. A call premium increased as the spread

    of the futures price over the strike price increased, whereas a put premium increased as the

    spread of the strike price over the futures price increased. The premiums of both puts and calls

    were higher for options with more time to maturity. Thus, unlike the futures, option buyers had

    to pay the premium to buy the contract in addition to both buyer and seller paying a fee for the

    transaction.

     

     

    The Risk-Management Group at Kansas City National Bank

    Walt Bernard, vice president of the risk management group of Kansas City National

    Bank, (KCNB) had recently given a presentation to J&L senior management in which he

    described the wide range of risk-management products and techniques available to protect J&L’s

    profit margin. Each technique used a particular financial product to hedge by various degrees

    J&L’s exposure to diesel-fuel price changes. The products offered by KCNB were completely

    financial in design (i.e., no actual delivery of the commodity took place at maturity). To hedge

    diesel fuel, KCNB offered No. 2 heating-oil contracts, the same commodity traded on the

    NYMEX. Also similar to trading on the NYMEX, working with KCNB meant that J&L could

    continue to do business as usual with its suppliers and perform its hedging activities

    independently.

     

    The primary risk-management products offered by KCNB were commodity swaps, caps,

    floors, and collars (see Exhibit 6 for cap and floor quotes). KCNB’s instruments were designed

    to hedge the average price of heating oil during the contract period. By contrast, NYMEX

    futures and options were contracts designed against the spot price in effect on the last day of the

    contract. In a commodity swap, the bank agreed to pay on the settlement date if the average price

    of heating oil was above the agreed-upon swap price for the year. Conversely, J&L would have

    to pay the bank if the average price was below the contracted swap price. Thus, a swap was

    essentially a custom-fit futures contract, with KCNB rather than NYMEX carrying the credit

    risk. Because the swap was priced on the average heating-oil price, settlement occurred at the

    end of the swap (12 months in J&L’s case) rather than daily as with NYMEX futures. In

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    addition, KCNB would not require J&L to post a margin but would charge a nominal up-front

    fee as compensation for accepting J&L’s credit risk. KCNB was currently quoting the 12-month

    swap price for heating oil as $1.522/gallon.

     

    KCNB also offered commodity options, referred to as caps, floors, and collars. A cap was

    essentially a call option; a floor was a put option; and a collar was the combination of a cap and

    a floor. For a cap, KCNB agreed to pay the excess of the realized average fuel price over the

    cap’s “strike price.” If the average fuel price never reached the strike price, KCNB would pay

    nothing. As for any option, J&L would need to pay KCNB a premium for the cap. The cap

    premium varied according to how far the strike price was above the expected price. If the strike

    was close to the expected price implied by the futures contracts, J&L would have to pay a

    relatively high premium. If J&L was willing to accept some risk by contracting for a strike price

    that was significantly higher than the expected average price, the premium would be smaller. In

    any case, the cap would allow J&L to take advantage of price decreases and yet still be protected

    from price increases above the cap’s strike price.

     

    A commodity collar was used to limit the movement of prices within the range of the cap

    and floor strike prices. By choosing a collar, J&L would be selling a floor while simultaneously

    buying a cap. KCNB agreed to pay the excess, if any, of the average heating-oil price over the

    cap strike price. Conversely, J&L would have to pay if the average price fell below the floor

    strike price. Collars could be designed to have a minimal up-front cost by setting the cap and

    floor strike prices so that the revenue derived from selling the floor exactly offset the premium

    for buying the cap. If J&L management wanted to guard against prices rising above a certain

    price (the cap’s strike price) but were willing to give up the benefit of prices falling below a

    certain level (the floor’s strike price), a collar could be the logical choice.

     

     

    Matthews’s Choice

    Jeannine Matthews had decided to recommend that J&L hedge its fuel costs for the next

    12 months, at least to some extent. Her analysis revealed that despite using more efficient

    equipment, the cost of fuel as a percentage of revenues had increased every year since 2001

    (Exhibit 7). The immediate questions to be answered were: How much fuel should be hedged,

    and how should the hedge be structured?

     

    Bernard had presented Matthews with a myriad of possibilities, each of which provided

    some degree of profit protection. A commodity swap, for example, could be used to completely

    fix the price of fuel for the next year. If the price of diesel fuel ended up falling below the swap

    price, however, the hedge would be more of an embarrassment than a benefit to Matthews.

    Defending a newly initiated hedging policy would be difficult if J&L’s profits lagged those of

    other railroads because of a failure to capture lower fuel costs.

     

    Then there was the issue of how much fuel to hedge. If the economy experienced a

    slowdown, J&L would experience a drop in rail loads, which would result in using less than the

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    210 million gallons currently expected. If the hedge was constructed based on more fuel than

    needed, it was conceivable that J&L could end up paying to settle its position with the bank for

    fuel that it could not use. At the same time, it was also possible that the economy would pick up,

    and J&L would end up having to buy a significant amount of fuel on the open market without the

    benefit of a hedge.

     

    Instead of a swap, Matthews could use a cap to eliminate the risk of high fuel prices. This

    would seem to alleviate the problem of over- or under-hedging because the cap would only be

    exercised if it was profitable (i.e., if prices rose beyond the cap’s strike price). At that point, J&L

    would prefer to have been over-hedged because the company would get a higher payoff from the

    cap. The biggest concern about the cap strategy was that the price of heating oil might not rise

    high enough to trigger the cap, in which case the premium paid for the cap would have only

    served to reduce profits with no offsetting benefits. Another alternative was to enter into a collar,

    which could be structured to have a zero cost; however, a collar carried a hidden cost because it

    gave up the savings if fuel prices happened to fall below the floor’s strike price.

     

    Matthews knew that it was important for her to keep in mind that all of KCNB’s product

    could be mimicked using NYMEX futures and options. In fact, maybe there was a creative way

    to combine NYMEX securities to give J&L a better hedge than provided by KCNB’s products.

    Regardless of what she recommended, Matthews realized that she needed to devise a hedging

    strategy that would give J&L the maximum benefit at the lowest cost and would not prove to be

    an embarrassment for her or J&L.

     

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    -9- UVA-F-1053

     

    Exhibit 1

    J&L RAILROAD

    Consolidated Income Statement, 2006–08 (in millions of dollars)

    December 31

     

     

    2008 2007 2006

    Revenues by market group:

    Coal $1,080 $ 871 $ 857

    Merchandise 1,907 1,954 1,878

    Intermodal 714 722 725

    Total operating revenues 3,701 3,547 3,461

     

    Expenses:

    Compensation and benefits 987 939 970

    Purchased service and rent 588 571 581

    Fuel 603 430 403

    Depreciation 296 285 271

    Materials and other 313 294 295

    Total operating expenses 2,787 2,519 2,520

     

    Operating income: 914 1,028 941

    Other income 40 34 55

    Interest expense, net (163) (162) (175)

     

    Income (loss) before income taxes: 791 900 820

    Income tax provision (297) (310) (276)

     

    Net income $ 494 $ 589 $ 545

     

    Source: Main Street Trading data.

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    -10- UVA-F-1053

     

    Exhibit 2

    J&L RAILROAD

    Consolidated Balance Sheets, 2007–08 (in millions of dollars)

    December 31

     

    Assets 2008 2007

    Current assets: Cash $ 227 $ 76 Receivable net 320 347 Materials and suppliers, at average cost 71 65 Deferred income taxes, current 55 70 Other current assets 62 58 Total current assets 735 616

     

    Properties:

    Investment 654 726 Property, road and structures, net 8,184 7,940

    Other assets 101 336

    Total assets $9,674 $9,618

     

    Liabilities and shareholders’ equity

    Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 419 $ 419

    Current portion of long-term debt 96 75

    Income taxes payable 81 87

    Other accrued expenses 178 136

    Total current liabilities 774 717

    Long-term debt 2,275 2,207 Deferred income taxes 2,344 2,366 Other liabilities and reserves 747 750 Total liabilities 6,140 6,040

     

    Shareholders’ equity: Common stock 135 140 Additional paid-in capital 618 539 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (347) (147) Retained income 3,128 3,046 Total shareholders’ equity 3,534 3,578 Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity $9,674 $9,618

     

    Source: Main Street Trading data.

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Loreal Resources And Capabilities

Title:Case Study about Global Strategic Management of L’Oréal

 

 

 

 

 

Author(s): 王玉寶、高水玲、吳采芝、阮坤輝、康新慧

Class: 1st year of Department of International Business

Student ID: M0458689、M0414490、M0427674、M0461893、M0561257

Course: Global Strategic Management

Instructor: Dr. 羅芳怡

Department: Department of International Business

Academic Year: Semester 1, 2016-2017

 

 

Case Study about Global Marketing Strategy of L’Oréal

 

1 FCU e-Paper (2016-2017)

 

ABSTRACT

 

This paper attempts to analyze L’Oréal as a beauty leader and its strategies which made

the company become and remain the largest cosmetics and beauty company. L’Oréal is a

worldwide company and has large shares of market in the most of marketplaces where it

invests, making use of powerful variety of marketing tools and strategies. Exploiting both

traditional and innovative marketing techniques, L’Oréal aims to grown its customer base to

two billion by 2020 while implementing CSR strategies, analyzing their business units by

identifying high-growth prospects according to growth rate and market share and

investigating the strategies that have been used to achieve it.

The evolution of the L’Oréal journey throughout the years shows how the brand

combination within a portfolio is a key factor for company growth and development which is

a crucial phase to understand the company competitive advantage. With the combination of

large amount in capital available and high technical capabilities, L’Oréal has access to

resources to produce in a large scale while making use of its strong research and development

department to bring up innovation. The corporate level strategies involve horizontal

integration, vertical integration and strategic alliances to build a stronger image in different

geographic markets. The importance of market analysis in all business areas, the corporate

strategies and marketing challenges as they globalize, the importance of understanding the

customer, proper use of resources and capabilities, customizing its products and business

strategies as key points to strive and prosper are being discussed in the paper.

 

Keyword: L’Oréal, Global Strategy, Global Strategic Management, Globalization, Product

Development, R&D, CSR, Multiculturalism, Global Business, Universalization.

 

 

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TABLE OF CONTENT

 

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

Table of Content ………………………………………………………………………………………………………2

List of Tables …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………4

Chapter 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………..5

Chapter 2. Corporate Strategy ……………………………………………………………………………….11

Chapter 3. Strategy Map ………………………………………………………………………………………..21

Chapter 4. Industry Analysis ………………………………………………………………………………… 33

Chapter 5. Strategy Group ……………………………………………………………………………………..43

Chapter 6. Analyzing Resources and Capabilities ……………………………………………………..50

Chapter 7. Value Chain Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………..66

Chapter 8. BCG Matrix Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………..76

Chapter 9. Outsourcing and Differentiation …………………………………………………………….. 82

Chapter 10. National Diamond Analysis …………………………………………………………………..85

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………92

Reference ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………93

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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LIST OF TABLES

 

Table 1: Acquired brands of L’Oréal from 1967 – 2015 …………………………………………….11

Table 2: Resource VRIS …………………………………………………………………………………………..60

Table 3: Capabilities VRIS ………………………………………………………………………………………64

Table 4: Consolidated sales by geographic zone ………………………………………………………..79

 

 

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LIST OF FIGURES

 

Figure 1: Business level strategy ……………………………………………………………………………….16

Figure 2: Strategy map of L’Oréal ……………………………………………………………………………21

Figure 3: Research and Innovation …………………………………………………………………………..21

Figure 4: Corporate Social Responsibility …………………………………………………………………24

Figure 5: Human Resource Management ………………………………………………………………….26

Figure 6: Marketing ……………………………………………………………………………………………….28

Figure 7: Finance …………………………………………………………………………………………………..30

Figure 8: Growth of the worldwide cosmetics market from 2006 to 2015 …………………..33

Figure 9: Porter Five forces ……………………………………………………………………………………..34

Figure 10: Bargaining power of suppliers ………………………………………………………………… 35

Figure 11: Bargaining power of new entrants ……………………………………………………………38

Figure 12: Intensity of rivalry …………………………………………………………………………………..40

Figure 13: Capabilities and Resources ………………………………………………………………………53

Figure 14: Sale of operational divisions …………………………………………………………………….76

Figure 15: Sale breakdown ………………………………………………………………………………………77

Figure 16: Sale and growth ………………………………………………………………………………………78

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case Study about Global Marketing Strategy of L’Oréal

 

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

I. Background of L’Oréal

1.1. Overview

L’Oréal is the world’s largest cosmetics company headquartered in France. It’s core

business focuses on manufacturing cosmetics. Their main products are hair colour, hair care,

perfume, skin care and make-up. Dedicated for the beauty for over 100 years, L’Oréal ranks

number 1 in the list of the world’s top cosmetics companies in 2016 by Women Wear’s Daily

Magazine which is a fashion-trade industry journal sometimes called “the bible of fashion”.

L’Oréal annual report has shown that it has the highest sales in 2015 with US$29.94 billion,

followed by Unilever with US$21.66 billion and nearly twice higher than Procter & Gamble.

1.2. History

Founded by Eugène Schueller – a young and creative chemist in 1909, L’Oréal innitially

began with first hair dyes that he himself formulated, produced and offered to hairdressers in

Paris. Since this first step, the founder set up culture that is now typical gene of L’Oréal:

research and innovation in the service of beauty.

Through one century operation, the company experienced four main phases.

1909-1956: The first steps, constructuring a model

Its founder – Eugène Schueller graduated from France’s national chemical engineering

school in 1904 and went on to establish his own enterprise on 30th July 1909 that later

wellknown as L’Oréal .

Thanks to deep knowledge in chemics , Schueller developed his abiity for new ideas and

came out his fitrst hair dye named Oréal which was combination of blended harmless

chemicals. The dye was an outstanding breakthrough at that time, offering a wide range of

colors different to others in the market which commonly used henna or mineral salts so gave

quite artificial look.

In 1925, the company renamed as L’Oréal. Since that time, It has changed consumer’s

daily life much.

1957-1983: Globally expanding through acquistions

This period was formative years of “Le Grand L’Oréal”. At the decision of its former

chairman – Mr. François Dalle, the Group went to internationalization. Its strategy was

acquisitions of other strategic brands, grounding spectacular growth for the Group.

Emblematic products joint in. The company’s motto was “Savoir saisir ce qui commence”

 

 

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(seize new opportunities).

Brasil was the prior destination with a direct presence in 1959 which became platform for

the whole of Latin America. The acquisition of Lancôme – a fantastic perfume, skincare and

make-up brand – in 1964 was the first strategic move to become a luxury cosmetics empire.

One year later, purchasing Garnier enabled L’Oréal to own a portfolio of organic haircare

products – a different compliment to haircare. In 1970, by taking over Biotherm, L’Oréal

stepped its research effort to skincare field. Specially, the year 1973 revealed the growth of

the Group in dermatological and dermopharmaceutical activities after its acquired a majority

interest in pharmaceutical company Synthelabo. In 1976, L’Oréal bought mascara brand

Ricils to enter make-up segments. At that time, the agreement with Netsle provided L’Oréal’s

international development in particular markets as Japan to expansion in Asia. In 1983, it set

up an R&D centre focusing on hair care and skincare to tailor its products to the Japanese .

1984-2000: Become number one in the beauty industry

These seventeen years were marked by a great growth, dominated by significant

investments in research. The Group had successfully become the world cosmetics leader

through its global presence of brands owing to numerous strategic acquisitions.

2001-now: Embracing diversity in its global growth

Building a portfolio of powerful and international brands, L’Oréal has enhanced its

competitive advantage by embracing diversity in its global growth agenda. The Group keeps

making new acquisitions to catch global and regional needs. It also undertakes social

responsible initiatives to enjoy sustainable development. Interestingly, the acquisition of The

Body Shop in 2006 marked its encouragement in natural products and against test on animals.

1.3. Key facts and figures

Until now, L’Oréal operates in 140 countries by 82,900 employees. It has about 35,000

patents granted in total and nearly 500 patents newly registered every year. Its strength in

Rerearch and Innovation is recognized in top 20 Diverse and Inclusive companies by

Thomson Reuter in 2016. It has 34 research and evaluation centers, 44 factories and 153

distribution centers worldwide. In 2015, it recorded US$29.94 billion of sales, in which

17.4% acounted for operating profit.

II. Performance of L’Oréal

2.1 A global success

L’Oréal presents in 140 countries on all five continents. While the world was in affection

of global crises, L’Oréal still earned money in all over the countries they opperate and

continued to improve and develop their current capability. In 2015, L’Oréal’ sales in Europe

 

 

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growth 2.3% in Western Europe and 9.8% in Eastern Europe while that number in North

America was around 3.5%. Because of good performances in Japan, India, Australia and

Thailand, specially L’Oréal Luxe brand improved in the fourth quarter, its sales went up by

4,7%. 4.6% growth in sales was revealed in Latin America. The highest growth was

particularly in Africa, Middle East with figure of 12.1%. Specifically, Egypt, Pakistan and

Saudi Arabia sales growth reached the top of 20%.

2.2 L’Oreal Mission

Beauty is a language

For over a century, the company has devoted energy and its capacity for an only purpose:

beauty. It is a rich business sense, as it allows all individuals to express their individuality,

get confidence and open up to others.

Beauty is universal

L’Oréal is committed to all the world’s women and men to provide the best quality,

efficacy and safety of cosmetics innovation. By satisfying the infinite diversity of beauty

needs and desires around the world

Beauty is a science

Since its inception, the group has been pushing the frontiers of knowledge. Unique

research arm enables it to continuously explore new fields, invent future products, and inspire

beauty rituals from all over the world.

Beauty is a commitment

The company provides access to products that enhance well-being, mobilizing its

innovative strength to preserve the beauty of the planet and supporting local communities.

These are exacting challenges, which are a source of inspiration and creativity for L’Oréal.

Beauty is for all

By leveraging the diversity of its team, as well as the richness and complementarity of its

brand portfolio, L’Oréal has made cosmetic the universalization of its next few years of projects.

2.3 L’Oréal ambition

L’Oréal’s ambition is to create more and more people around the world by creating an

unlimited variety of cosmetic products to satisfy their beauty needs and desires.

Beauty for all, beauty for each individual

In L’Oréal, there is no single and unique beauty model, but numerous forms of beauty,

with the period, culture, history and personality linked to attract more women and men to use

our products to contact an extremely diverse population, with Universalization of the

beautiful vision. In our view, universalization does not imply reunification, but instead is

 

 

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inspired by the diversity of innovation.

Observing local beauty customs

L’Oréal’s research and innovation team to reshape themselves, to create the world’s

diversified cosmetics. In every region of the world, it has set up a research platform, a true

professional center, designed to customize the beauty. These fields of study have created new

products that can be a global success. This is a real turning point in thinking about innovation.

Facilitating access to cosmetics products

In the market undergoing major changes, L’Oréal every year forward, bringing the best

beauty for everyone. With a portfolio of 32 international brands and an organizational structure

based on distribution channels, the company has the ambition to meet the needs of each consumer

according to his or her habits and lifestyles. Therefore, L’Oréal in their own way to promote the

development of the border, and to meet the challenges of more and more innovation.

Accelerating the regionalization of our expertise

In order to win another billionaire in the world is an ambitious project to inspire L’Oréal.

An economic, but also human adventure requires rapid deployment of its forces and

companies in various fields, including research, manufacturing, marketing, sales,

interpersonal and administrative teams to accelerate the transformation. This big project is

also an opportunity for innovation and the establishment of L’Oréal tomorrow.

III. Divisions of L’Oréal

L’Oréal has a strong and long-term brand which is being positioned to consumers across all

income levels by providing a wide range of beauty product. The company wants people around

the world to have easy access to their products that match their desire, lifestyles and beauty needs.

L’Oréal’s segmented its brand into five different Division where each of the brands develops a

specific image of beauty by universal consumption and distribution channels.

L’Oréal has 5 brands and divisions that are detailed below.

3.1 L’Oréal Luxe

L’Oréal Luxe opens a unique world of beauty. Its international brands incarnate all the

phase of elegance and purification in three major specializations: skin care, makeup and

fragrances. This division product is sold in department stores, cosmetics stores, travel retail,

own-brand boutiques and online site.

3.2 L’Oréal Consumer Products

The Consumer Products Division offers the best in accessible cosmetics innovation to a

wide customer around the world and distributed in mass retailing channels.

 

 

 

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3.3 L’Oréal Professional Products

The objective is to be the leader in each professional beauty category: hair care, nail

beauty and skincare and distributed in worldwide salons.

3.4 L’Oréal Active Cosmetics

Highly complementary beauty-health brands supported by professional healthcare

partners and sold in health care channels worldwide including pharmacies, drugstores and etc.

3.5 The Body Shop

The Body Shop using the world’s finest natural ingredients to create a high-quality

product in a sustainable and ethical way.

Consumer Products Division has generated highest sales compare to other brand divisions

and is strengthening its leadership in a dynamic dermo-cosmetics market. L’Oréal Luxe are

also catching up with its growth driven by its cutting-edge innovations. The Professional

Products Division is taking benefits of new plan to boost the professional beauty market, and

continues to improve steadily. Last, the Active Cosmetics Division are doing well by

conquering the health care channels worldwide.

IV. Reasons why we choose L’OREAL as our case

The background of L’Oréal has motivated and inspired us to make deeper research on. It is

obvious that L’Oréal got start from the hair-color business, such a small business with one person

in that time but shortly after, successfully branched out into other cleansing and beauty products.

For over a century L’Oréal has been devoted all energy and competencies to just sole business –

beauty. Nowadays, L’Oréal is such a truly global beauty brand with a large number of

internationally famed products. The beauty of passion of L’Oréal really excites our attention.

The second impression is the unique strategy of L’Oréal – universalization strategy. It is

convinced that there won’t be existed a single and unique model of beauty at L’Oréal, However, it

is an infinite diversity which changed according to the times, cultures, histories, individuals…etc.

The definition for L’Oréal’s strategy is: “Universalization means globalization that respects

differences. Differences are at desires, needs and traditions”. L’Oréal is driven by the vision of

universalization of beauty over the world to catch a larger numbers of male and female and meet

intensive diverse populations. With prosperity of unique and international portfolio of 32

complementary brands on 140 countries, L’Oréal believes to push back the boundaries and meet

every demand of customers according to his or her habit and lifestyle.

Last but not least, Product innovation is a factor that makes L’Oréal to become special. In

order to create cosmetic products which could adapt to the rich diversity of people on over

the world, L’Oréal has have established many Research platforms, veritable centers of

 

 

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expertise in the service of a personalized beauty on five continents. They believe that product

innovation ought to meet cultural expectation, it managed to adapt to specific cultural

difference in beauty market on over the world. L’Oréal currently has six worldwide research

and development centers, two in France, One in the U.S. Another in Japan. In 2005, L’Oréal

established one R&D in Shanghai, China, and the final is in India.

“For a Brazilian woman, hair and body are most important, for a Chinese woman facial skin

is the priority, for an Indian woman it’s make-up. Our approach is the ‘universalization’ of beauty,

i.e. globalization without uniformization” explained Jean-Paul Agon – Chairman of L’Oréal.

 

 

 

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Chapter 2

CORPORATE STRATEGY

I. Corporate strategy

1.1. Expand through Acquisition

L’Oréal growth strategy has been carried out both through internal development and

through acquistion of companies already operating in the cosmetics industry. In particular,

external growth by acquisition is part of L’Oréal’s long-term strategy, with a long-term

annual growth goal of 10%. This option has also been facilitated by the group’s liquidity and

low debts. Purchases of more companies allows the group to reach the critical size needed for

exploiting economies of scale both in R&D activities and in marketing and distribution. The

acquisitions also promote L’Oréal to quickly expand its geographical horizon and develop its

market segments. The actual portfolio of 25 prestigeous brands is the results of a series of

acquisitions that began many year ago, which is described in the table below.

Table 1: Acquired brands of L’Oréal from 1967 – 2015

Year Luxe Consumer

Products

Professional

Products

Active

Cosmetics

The Body

Shop

1967 Lancôme

(France)

Garnier

(France)

 

1971 Biotherm

(France)

 

1980 Vichy

(France)

 

1985 Ralph Lauren

 

 

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(the U.S);

Giorgio

Armani (Italy)

1989

 

La

Roche-Posay

(France)

 

1993 Redken (the

U.S)

 

1996 Maybelline

New York

(the U.S)

 

2000 Kiehl’s

(the U.S)

SoftSheen.Cars

on (the U.S)

Matrix (the

U.S)

International Finance DQ 4/5

BLADES, INC. CASE: Assessment of Government Influence on Exchange Rates

CASE STUDY FOR DISCUSSION 1A

 

Recall that Blades, the U.S. manufacturer of roller blades, generates most of its revenue and incurs most of its expenses in the United States. However, the company has recently begun exporting roller blades to Thailand. The company has an agreement with Entertainment Products, Inc., a Thai importer, for a 3-year period. According to the terms of the agreement, Entertainment Products will purchase 180,000 pairs of “Speedos,” Blades’ primary product, annually at a fixed price of 4,594 Thai baht per pair. Due to quality and cost considerations, Blades is also importing certain rubber and plastic components from a Thai exporter. The cost of these components is approximately 2,871 Thai baht per pair of Speedos. No contractual agreement exists between Blades, Inc., and the Thai exporter. Consequently, the cost of the rubber and plastic components imported from Thailand is subject not only to exchange rate considerations but to economic conditions (such as inflation) in Thailand as well. Shortly after Blades began exporting to and importing from Thailand, Asia experienced weak economic conditions. Consequently, foreign investors in Thailand feared the baht’s potential weakness and withdrew their investments, resulting in an excess supply of Thai baht for sale. Because of the resulting downward pressure on the baht’s value, the Thai government attempted to stabilize the baht’s exchange rate. To maintain the baht’s value, the Thai government intervened in the foreign exchange market. Specifically, it swapped its baht reserves for dollar reserves at other central banks and then used its dollar reserves to purchase the baht in the foreign exchange market. However, this agreement required Thailand to reverse this transaction by exchanging dollars for baht at a future date. Unfortunately, the Thai government’s intervention was unsuccessful, as it was overwhelmed by market forces. Consequently, the Thai government ceased its intervention efforts, and the value of the Thai baht declined substantially against the dollar over a 3-month period. When the Thai government stopped intervening in the foreign exchange market, Ben Holt, Blades’ CFO, was concerned that the value of the Thai baht would continue to decline indefinitely. Since Blades generates net inflow in Thai baht, this would seriously affect the company’s profit margin. Furthermore, one of the reasons Blades had expanded into Thailand was to appease the company’s shareholders. At last year’s annual shareholder meeting, they had demanded that senior management take action to improve the firm’s low profit margins. Expanding into Thailand had been Holt’s suggestion, and he is now afraid that his career might be at stake. For these reasons, Holt feels that the Asian crisis and its impact on Blades demand his serious attention. One of the factors Holt thinks he should consider is the issue of government intervention and how it could affect Blades in particular. Specifically, he wonders whether the decision to enter into a fixed agreement with Entertainment Products was a good idea under the circumstances. Another issue is how the future completion of the swap agreement initiated by the Thai government will affect Blades. To address these issues and to gain a little more understanding of the process of government intervention, Holt has prepared the following list of questions for you, Blades’ financial analyst, since he knows that you understand international financial management.

 

BLADES, INC. CASE: Assessment of Potential Arbitrage Opportunities

CASE STUDY FOR DISCUSSION 1b

 

Recall that Blades, a U.S. manufacturer of roller blades, has chosen Thailand as its primary export target for Speedos, Blades’ primary product. Moreover, Blades’ primary customer in Thailand, Entertainment Products, has committed itself to purchase 180,000 Speedos annually for the next 3 years at a fixed price denominated in baht, Thailand’s currency. Because of quality and cost considerations, Blades also imports some of the rubber and plastic components needed to manufacture Speedos from Thailand. Lately, Thailand has experienced weak economic growth and political uncertainty. As investors lost confidence in the Thai baht as a result of the political uncertainty, they withdrew their funds from the country. This resulted in an excess supply of baht for sale over the demand for baht in the foreign exchange market, which put downward pressure on the baht’s value. As foreign investors continued to withdraw their funds from Thailand, the baht’s value continued to deteriorate. Since Blades has net cash flows in baht resulting from its exports to Thailand, deterioration in the baht’s value will affect the company negatively. Ben Holt, Blades’ CFO, would like to ensure that the spot and forward rates Blades’ bank has quoted are reasonable. If the exchange rate quotes are reasonable, then arbitrage will not be possible. If the quotations are not appropriate, however, arbitrage may be possible. Under these conditions, Holt would like Blades to use some form of arbitrage to take advantage of possible mispricing in the foreign exchange market. Although Blades is not an arbitrageur, Holt believes that arbitrage opportunities could offset the negative impact resulting from the baht’s depreciation, which would otherwise seriously affect Blades’ profit margins Holt has identified three arbitrage opportunities as profitable and would like to know which one of them is the most profitable. Thus, he has asked you, Blades’ financial analyst, to prepare an analysis of the arbitrage opportunities he has identified. This would allow Holt to assess the profitability of arbitrage opportunities very quickly.

E-ACTIVITIES FOR DISCUSSION 2

e-Activities

1. Go to The Economist’s Website, located at http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index, and explore the Big Mac Index. Focus on what it tells you about PPP and the relative prices between Thailand and the U.S. in particular. Be prepared to discuss.

Select a Fortune 500 company that is of interest to you. Use the Internet and the following links to research the manner in which translation exposure could affect the company in question.

 Yahoo! Finance, located at http://finance.yahoo.com/

 X-Rates, located at http://www.x-rates.com/table/?from=thb

 CoinMill.com, located at http://coinmill.com/THB_USD.html

 “Industry Analysis: Recreation” article, located at http://www.valueline.com/Stocks/Industries/Industry_Analysis__Recreation.aspx

Focus on the location of most of the company’s foreign subsidiaries and the major currencies that the company must use on a daily basis. Consider the key tools that are available for the selected company to minimize translation exposure when the company repatriates earnings at the end of the fiscal year. Be prepared to discuss.

Investment Calculations Need #8 Homework

Sheet1

Problem 18-1
A convertible bond has a $1,000 face value and a conversion ratio of 45. What is the conversion price?(Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.) A convertible bond has a $1,000 face value and a conversion ratio of 31. What is the conversion price?(Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Conversion price $
Explanation:
$1,000 / 45 = $22.22 32.2580645161

Sheet2

Problem 18.2 (6e)
A convertible bond has a conversion ratio of 22 and a par value of $1,000. What is the conversion price?(Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response) A convertible bond has a conversion ratio of 36 and a par value of $1,000. What is the conversion price?(Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Conversion price $
Explanation:
$1,000/22 = $45.45 27.7777777778

Sheet3

Problem 18-2
A company just sold a convertible bond at a par value of $1,000. If the conversion price is $58, what is the conversion ratio? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.)
  Conversion ratio
Explanation:
$1,000 / $58 = 17.24 23.2558139535

Sheet4

Problem 18-3
A convertible bond has a $1,000 face value and a conversion ratio of 36. If the stock price is $42, what is the conversion value? (Omit the “$” sign in your response.) A convertible bond has a $1,000 face value and a conversion ratio of 42. If the stock price is $39, what is the conversion value? (Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Conversion value $
Explanation:
36 × $42 = $1,512 1638

Sheet5

Problem 18.5 (6e)
A convertible bond has a conversion ratio of 17 and a par value of $1,000. If the stock is currently priced at $38, what is the conversion value? (Omit the “$” sign in your response.) A convertible bond has a conversion ratio of 34 and a par value of $1,000. If the stock is currently priced at $22, what is the conversion value? (Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Conversion value $
Explanation:
17 × $38 = $646 748

Sheet6

Problem 18.6 (6e)
Consider a convertible bond with a conversion value of $1,120. The stock is currently priced at $33. What is the conversion ratio of the bond? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.) Consider a convertible bond with a conversion value of $1,200. The stock is currently priced at $38. What is the conversion ratio of the bond? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.)
  Conversion ratio   Conversion ratio
Explanation: 31.5789473684
$1,120/$33 = 33.94

Sheet7

Problem 18-4
A bond matures in 25 years, but is callable in 11 years at 123. The call premium decreases by 2 percent of par per year. If the bond is called in 16 years, what percent of face value will you receive? (Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Bond call price in 16 years  %

Sheet8

Problem 18-5
You own a bond with a 7.4 percent coupon rate and a yield to call of 8.3 percent. The bond currently sells for $1,095. If the bond is callable in five years, what is the call premium of the bond? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Call premium $

Sheet9

Problem 18-20
Steven Long, a bond analyst, is analyzing a convertible bond. The characteristics of the bond are given below.
Convertible Bond Characteristics
  Par value $ 1,000
  Annual coupon rate (annual pay) 6.3 %
  Conversion ratio 29
  Market price 118 % of par
  Straight value 99 % of par
Underlying Stock Characteristics
  Current market price $ 31 per share
Compute the bond’s conversion value and conversion price. (Round your conversion price to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Conversion value $
  Conversion price $

Sheet10

Problem 18-20
Steven Long, a bond analyst, is analyzing a convertible bond. The characteristics of the bond are given below.
Convertible Bond Characteristics
  Par value $ 1,000
  Annual coupon rate (annual pay) 7.2 %
  Conversion ratio 25
  Market price 105 % of par
  Straight value 99 % of par
Underlying Stock Characteristics
  Current market price $32 per share
Compute the bond’s conversion value and conversion price. (Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Conversion value $
  Conversion price $

Sheet11

What is the price of a STRIPS with a maturity of 3 years, a face value of $10,000, and a yield to maturity of 7.2 percent? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Price of a STRIPS $
  Yield to maturity  %

Sheet12

A STRIPS with 14 years until maturity and a face value of $10,000 is trading for $7,000. What is the yield to maturity? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Yield to maturity  %

Sheet13

Problem 18-11
A municipal bond with a coupon rate of 3.9 percent has a yield to maturity of 4.9 percent. Assume a face value of $5,000. If the bond has 5 years to maturity, what is the price of the bond? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Price of the bond $

Sheet14

Problem 18-12
A municipal bond with a coupon rate of 5.60 percent sells for $4,890 and has eight years until maturity. What is the yield to maturity of the bond? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Yield to maturity of the bond  %

Sheet15

Problem 19.6 (6e)
A municipal bond has 10 years until maturity and sells for $5,661. If the coupon rate on the bond is 6.83 percent, what is the yield to maturity? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Yield to maturity  %

Sheet16

Problem 18-13
A municipal bond has 18 years until maturity and sells for $5,190. It has a coupon rate of 3.90 percent and it can be called in 8 years. What is the yield to call if the call price is 105 percent of par? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Yield to call  %

Sheet17

Problem 19.8 (6e)
A municipal bond has a yield to maturity of 4.8 percent. What corporate bond yield would make an investor in the 34 percent tax bracket indifferent between the two bonds, all else the same? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.) A municipal bond has a yield to maturity of 4.8 percent. What corporate bond yield would make an investor in the 34 percent tax bracket indifferent between the two bonds, all else the same? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Bond yield  %
Explanation:
3.80%/(1 – .29) = 5.35% 7.27%

Sheet18

roblem 18-14
A taxable corporate issue yields 6.5 percent. For an investor in a 35 percent tax bracket, what is the equivalent aftertax yield? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.) A taxable corporate issue yields 6.8 percent. For an investor in a 35 percent tax bracket, what is the equivalent aftertax yield? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Aftertax yield  %
Explanation:
6.50%(1 – .35) = 4.23% 6.8 0.65 4.42

Sheet19

Problem 18-15
A taxable issue yields 6.4 percent, and a similar municipal issue yields 4.7 percent. What is the critical marginal tax rate? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.) A taxable issue yields 6 percent, and a similar municipal issue yields 4.5 percent. What is the critical marginal tax rate? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Tax rate %
Explanation:
1 – .047 / .064 = 26.56% 0.25

Sheet20

Problem 18-16
A Treasury bill has a bid yield of 3.5% and an ask yield of 3.44%. The bill matures in 155 days. Assume a face value of $1,000. What is the least you could pay to acquire a bill? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 3 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Price $

Sheet21

Problem 18-17
A Treasury bill has a bid yield of 2.01% and an ask yield of 1.97%. The bill matures in 158 days. Assume a face value of $1,000. What is the dollar spread for this bill? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 3 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
   Dollar spread $

Sheet22

Problem 18-18
A Treasury issue is quoted at 128:16 bid and 128:30 ask. Assume a face value of $1,000. What is the least you could pay to acquire a bond? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Price $

Sheet23

Problem 19.14 (6e)
A noncallable Treasury bond has a quoted yield of 5.13 percent. It has a 6.1 percent coupon and 12 years to maturity.
a. What is its dollar price assuming a $1,000 par value? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Dollar price $
b. What is its quoted price?
  Quoted price  :

Sheet24

Problem 18-19
A Treasury bond with the longest maturity (30 years) has an ask price quoted at 98:02. The coupon rate is 3.60 percent, paid semiannually. What is the yield to maturity of this bond? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Yield to maturity  %

Sheet25

Problem 18-24
A STRIPS traded on May 1 2014, matures in 10 years on May 1 2024. Assuming a 6 percent yield to maturity, what is the STRIPS price? (Use Excel to answer this question. Enter your answer as a percentage of par value. Round your answer to 4 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  STRIPS price $

Sheet26

Problem 18-25
A STRIPS traded on May 1 2014, matures in 10 years on May 1 2024. The quoted STRIPS price is 84.35. What is its yield to maturity? (Use Excel to answer this question. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the “%” sign in your response.)
  Yield to maturity  %

Sheet27

Problem 20-3
A homeowner takes out a $397,000, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at a rate of 5.30 percent. What are the monthly mortgage payments? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Mortgage payment $

Sheet28

Problem 20-4
You have decided to buy a house. You can get a mortgage rate of 5.85 percent, and you want your payments to be $1,000 or less. How much can you borrow on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Mortgage amount $

Sheet29

Problem 20-8
A 30-year, $240,000 mortgage has a rate of 5.3 percent.
1 What are the interest and principal portions in the first payment? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Interest $
  Principal $
2 What are the interest and principal portions in the second payment? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Interest $
  Principal $

Sheet30

Problem 20-9
A homeowner takes a 20-year fixed-rate mortgage for $180,000 at 7 percent. After five years, the homeowner sells the house and pays off the remaining principal. How much is the principal payment? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Principal payment $

Sheet31

Problem 20-10
Consider a 15-year, $120,000 mortgage with a 5.85 percent interest rate. After four years, the borrower (the mortgage issuer) pays it off. How much will the lender receive? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Lender receives $

Sheet32

Problem 20-11
Consider a 30-year, $140,000 mortgage with a rate of .0620 percent. Thirteen years into the mortgage, rates have fallen to 5 percent. What would be the monthly saving to a homeowner from refinancing the outstanding mortgage balance at the lower rate for the same maturity date? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the “$” sign in your response.)
  Savings $

 

22.22 ± 1%

 

22.22 ± 1%

 

45.45 ± 1%

 

45.45 ± 1%

 

17.24 ± 1%

 

17.24 ± 1%

 

1,512 ± .1%

 

1,512 ± .1%

 

646 ± 1%

 

646 ± 1%

 

 

33.94 ± 1%

 

33.94 ± 1%

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.49 ± 1%

 

6.49 ± 1%

 

4.64 ± 1%

 

4.64 ± 1%

 

4.86 ± 1%

 

4.86 ± 1%

 

5.35 ± 1%

 

5.35 ± 1%

 

4.23 ± 1%

 

4.23 ± 1%

 

26.56 ± 1%

 

26.56 ± 1%

 

 

.084 ± 1%

 

.084 ± 1%

 

108

 

108

 

1,084.40

 

1,084.40

 

 

14

 

14

 

4.63 ± 1%

 

4.63 ± 1%

 

5.40 ± 1%

 

5.40 ± 1%