In September 2022, the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Maximum Quality Equipment (Maximum), was trying to decide whether to invest in a joint venture company to operate a quarry that would extract and sell rock armour. The joint venture company, Island Development Corporation (IDC), had secured a 25-year mineral production sharing agreement with the Philippine government. IDC would purchase equipment and extract rock armour in Chiquita Island and then sell the rock armour to San Miguel Corporation (SMC), a major Philippine corporation. The contract was currently under negotiation, with SMC offering a two-year contract and IDC asking for a five-year contract. The CEO asked his chief financial officer to run a discounted cash flow, estimate the cost of capital for the project, and determine the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and project payback. He needed to decide whether he would invest in the project.
In May 2021, a recent MBA graduate and retail investor, read an announcement about Monde Nissin Corporation launching an initial public offering of 3.6 billion shares at ₱13.50 per share. The company expected to raise ₱48.6 billion in the largest common share offering ever in the Philippines, while the country was still in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. However, economic and stock market conditions were expected to improve after the availability of vaccines and anticipated end of the lockdown. The investor planned to run a discounted cash flow valuation and comparable multiples analysis of Monde Nissin Corporation to determine if he should invest in the initial public offering. He also wanted to assess the attractiveness of the food industry and the merits of investing in the company, which was the market leader in all of its product categories.
In January 2021, an equity analyst in the Student Managed Investment Fund of the Asian Institute of Management was trying to estimate the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) of Aboitiz Power Corporation (AP) based on the capital asset pricing model. The WACC estimate would be part of her discounted cash flow valuation, which would then help her determine whether or not the fund should invest in Aboitiz Power Corporation. AP was a leading power generation and distribution company in the Philippines with ₱81.1 billion in revenues over the nine-month period ended September 2020. The Philippines was in the middle of a lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the stock market was showing signs of recovery, the analyst was worried that record low interest rates might exert unwarranted downward pressure on her WACC estimate and artificially raise her discounted cash flow valuation of AP. The company’s WACC had decreased from 2019 to 2020, reflecting a lower risk-free rate, lower borrowing rate, lower stock price, and resulting weight of equity. The analyst needed to explore potential adjustments to normalize the WACC away from pandemic conditions in order to confirm her recommendation regarding investing in AP stock.
In May 2019, a retail investor in the Philippines had to decide whether or not to immediately sell his shares in Holcim Philippines, Inc (HPI). The San Miguel Corporation had just announced the acquisition of around 86 per cent controlling interest in HPI. The price of HPI had increased considerably in the months leading up to the acquisition announcement, and this investor was anticipating a large gain. Now, he needed to run a fair value estimate of HPI’s price using both the capital-asset-pricing-model-based discounted cash flow method and the comparable multiples method in order to decide what to do: Should he sell his shares at the prevailing market price, wait until the future potential tender offer, or hold his shares indefinitely?
Luckin Coffee Inc. (Luckin), an emerging growth firm that aimed to become the market leader in the coffee industry in China, had quickly grabbed market share by using freebies and discounts to entice cost-conscious Chinese consumers to try its products. Luckin sold its coffee and snacks through a proprietary mobile app, and customers either picked up their orders from strategically located stores or had them delivered. By the end of 2019, Luckin had served 40 million customers from its 4,500 stores. While the path to Luckin’s goal was clear, investigations revealed that key executives and board members had allegedly defrauded investors by distorting revenue and expense figures and engaging in related-party transactions that channeled resources out of the company. The accounting scandal led to further investigations, penalties from Chinese regulators, and a drop in the company’s share price and valuation, which went from $12 billion to below $1 billion within 11 months of listing. By August 2020, the company had been delisted from the Nasdaq exchange, its board composition had been changed, and it had been placed under the supervision of “light touch” provisional liquidators in the Cayman Islands. Was there a chance that Luckin could survive the scandal and its investors could recoup their funds? What could the company do to restore investor confidence and regain its path to becoming the market leader in the Chinese coffee industry? What were the implications of the accounting scandal to current and future listings on US stock exchanges?
On June 11, 2018, Jake Veluz, portfolio manager at BDO Asset Management had to decide whether or not to invest in the initial public offering (IPO) of D.M. Wenceslao and Associates (DMW), a Philippine-based integrated property developer. The IPO price of DMW was reduced from ₱22.90 to ₱12 because of deteriorating stock market conditions. There is substantial concentration risk because most of the company’s land is in a single location and it is subject to long-term competitive pressures. However, DMW also has good prospects for future growth and capital appreciation in real estate rentals and development. Veluz had to prepare an internal memo to explain the merits, risks, and fair valuation of a possible investment in the DMW IPO in the context of weak stock market conditions.
In June 2019, a newly promoted branch manager of a bank in Davao City, Philippines, must recommend to the bank’s head office who among six loan applicants will obtain loans from the branch. She has received applications for ₱24 million in loans but can only grant ₱18 million. The branch manager needs to (a) decide how much to loan and to which customers, (b) find ways to retain valuable customers and acquire new ones, and (c) consider new avenues to accommodate the increasing number of applicants at her branch. The case encourages students to apply customer relationship management concepts in deciding which borrowers to recommend and it offers an opportunity to discuss the role of marketers as trusted advisers to their clients.
In early December 2016, a student member of the Philippine Fund of the finance lab at the Asian Institute of Management was wondering whether to invest in the initial public offering (IPO) of Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. (Shakey’s). Shakey’s was the market leader in the full-service chain restaurants industry in the Philippines and would be the fourth company to be listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange. The IPO period was from December 2 to December 8, 2016, and the company was offering a total of 306 million shares. The student member must decide whether to buy Shakey’s stock based on her estimate of the intrinsic value of Shakey’s relative to the IPO price, Shakey’s strategy and prior performance, and the attractiveness of the food service and restaurant industry.