In 2001, the Unilever Superannuation Fund sued Merrill Lynch for damages of 130 million British pounds. Over the period 1977 to 1998, the Unilever Fund had significantly underperformed the benchmark, and its trustees contended that the poor returns resulted from negligence by the fund manager, Mercury Asset Management (which Merrill Lynch had subsequently purchased). In response, Merrill/Mercury argued that although they may have made some poor judgments, they had not been negligent, and abnormal market circumstances had been the cause of the underperformance. The court case was expected to have ramifications for the entire pensions industry.
Asset manager GMO underperforms the market during the 1996-2000 stock market bubble because of the focus on absolute risk. After suffering significant client withdrawals, performance again shines when the bubble collapses. Did they win the battle only to lose the war? This case reviews the quantitative investment process developed by the firm to manage assets and the philosophy behind the models and the firm. Now that performance has recovered, the partners contemplate why so much business was lost. Should they temper further bets to retain more business, or does the fiduciary duty to the client necessarily entail the risk that some clients will leave?
United Grain Growers Ltd. (UGG), a Canadian grain distributor, audited its exposure to a number of key risks, especially the impact of weather on grain volumes and operating income. Understanding these risks was crucial because the company was in the midst of a major modernization and diversification program. But although UGG already managed traditional risks through a variety of control processes, it was still faced with the problem of how to deal with the biggest risk; the weather.
A major U.K.-based multinational is reevaluating its leverage policy as it restructures its business. The treasury team models the tradeoffs between the benefits and costs of debt financing, using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the savings from the interest tax shields and expected financial distress costs under several sets of leverage policies. The group treasurer (CFO) must decide whether and how the simulation results should be incorporated into a recommendation to the board of directors and, more generally, what recommendation to make regarding the firm's leverage policy.