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In the fall of 2009, Fred Hochberg, Chairman of The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im), and his team struggled to find a way to help finance the sale of Boeing aircraft to Emirates. Ex-Im responds to the challenges in credit market with an innovative offering. This case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the structure and activities of an export credit agency and to value the expected costs of issuing a loan guarantee.

Disinvestment of government shareholding in Public Sector Undertakings, through Public Offers, is a common occurrence in many economies. This case describes such a process of disinvestment of the government of India's stake in a large power utility, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in India. In addition to process details, the case contains information and data that make it possible to rigorously analyze the response of market participants and the resulting changes in the prices of shares of NTPC before, during and after the public offer.

The private equity group Hony Capital considers what to do with their investment in Zoomlion, which has been successful to date. The question is whether to take their money off the table, or to invest in their acquisition of a large Italian competitor.

Haitao Jin, Chairman of Shenzhen Capital Group Co., Ltd. ("SCGC") and Wanshou Li, President of the SCGC must decide how to continue to grow their venture capital/private equity firm in China. SCGC is a premier VC/PE fund in China and a pioneer of the Government Sponsored Fund (GBF) structure. The firm had grown to RMB 20 billion in just ten years and had funds in 29 different cities across China. As competition for investments becomes more intense, Jin and Li must decide the growth and strategic direction that SCGC should pursue. The case highlights the important success factors for VC/PE investing in China as well as the important role that the Chinese Government plays in the financing landscape.

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This case introduces students to the fundamental issues that managers face when deciding what international trade finance terms to use when transacting with other firms. In late 2009, Pam Arnold, the Head of Global Credit at Belco Global Foods must decide which trade finance terms to offer to two new customers and how to pursue a claim against a customer who has missed a payment deadline.

This case introduces students to the fundamental issues that managers face when deciding what international trade finance terms to use when transacting with other firms. In late 2009, Pam Arnold, the Head of Global Credit at Belco Global Foods must decide which trade finance terms to offer to two new customers and how to pursue a claim against a customer who has missed a payment deadline.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Over the past decade, and especially over the past few years, a number of the world's most widely respected companies have collapsed. The authors believe that a major, though not often mentioned, factor was these companies' traditional approach to risk management, which tends to look for risk in all the wrong places. Two fundamentally different views have evolved over the years on how risk should be assessed. The first and prevailing view -- termed the frequentist view -- is based solely on repetitive historical data, such as weather patterns. The second, or Bayesian, view considers risk to be in part a judgment of the observer, or a property of the observation process; repetitive historical data thus are essentially complemented by other kinds of information. Where there is a great deal of relevant data, this information plays a dominant role, with the integration of judgment making a substantial improvement over the traditional approach. Where there is little or no relevant data, judgment plays a dominant role, providing value under conditions beyond the scope of the traditional approach. Either way, recognizing the important, sometimes central, role of judgment can lead to more reasonable and realistic behavior -- in large part because we realize that judgment is not perfect and can be refined as more experience is acquired. The key point is that risk under the Bayesian approach can be measured quantitatively, whatever the amount and quality of the data. And rather than focusing entirely on the observed world, Bayesian risk assessment also reflects the consistency, reliability and precision of the observer. Many measures are being deployed to recover from the collapses and to build a more robust system that prevents future crises -- a shift from frequentist risk management to Bayesian risk management should be a part of this effort.

Jim Reynolds Jr. founded Loop Capital in 1997 as an investment bank specializing in bond sales for municipalities. Ten years later, with thirteen offices and almost 100 employees, Loop Capital was a national company and had brokered more than $800 billion of underwritings in equity, tax-exempt, and taxable fixed income markets. In the process of building its municipal finance and equity trading businesses, Loop Capital had developed close relationships with a number of government officials, large institutional money managers, and corporate executives. These customers began asking Loop Capital for help with other financial services, leading the firm to build corporate finance, tax-exempt, and taxable fixed-income platforms so it could offer a wider array of investment services. Municipal and corporate finance as well as equity, taxable, and tax-exempt trading were generating positive cash flow. In a field where failures were frequent, Loop Capital was thriving, and Reynolds saw great but untapped potential in the company's future. Over the past several years, Loop Capital had served as financial advisor to several municipalities that wanted to lease or sell public assets such as airports, toll roads, and seaports. Now he confronted several intriguing questions: Should he launch a $700 million infrastructure fund to invest in the types of deals the firm had helped structure? Did it make sense to invest in order to staff, market, and support the start-up of this new fund? If the fund was launched, should Loop Capital commit to the 1% investment likely to be required as the fund's general partner?

Rufus Rivers, managing director and co-head of mezzanine investing at The Carlyle Group, is reviewing two employment offers he recently received. One came from RLJ Equity Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. The other came via Glocap Search, a New York-based executive search firm specializing in placing top private equity executives in premier venture capital roles. The Glocap recruiter had told Rivers that he had been selected as the leading candidate for a position with an established Boston-area venture capital firm that had several exciting investment prospects. In the next few days, Rivers needs to consider his personal and professional interests and make a decision: Should he go to Washington, go to Boston, or stay put-and on what terms?

The case discusses the operational, strategic, and financial turnaround at Solo Cup, a manufacturer of disposable dining wares. Solo Cup's troubles were compounded by the acquisition of a larger rival, Sweetheart Company, which had its own problems and presented issues of merger integration that management could not solve. David Garfield, a managing director at turnaround consulting firm Alix Partners, must first recognize Solo Cup's core competencies in order to determine the appropriate change in strategic course, strip out the assets that no longer support the operations necessary for that strategy, and monetize them in order to rationalize its balance sheet. This case teaches that a three-pronged approach will invariably produce greater results than any one-dimensional turnaround.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #UV2565

Emergia wants to keep its customers happy with its contact center service, but the margins on the help desk contract are dangerously low. Can Miguel Neira, the COO, increase margins while preserving the customer relationship?

The most recent recessionary period and credit crisis has precipitated discussions on the importance of stable financial systems. Many national governments are considering enacting stricter regulation on financial markets and bank liquidity. National and international supervisors will implement regulatory adjustments through coordinated efforts or independently in the next few years. There will be major developments in the banking industry within the near future.<br><br>This case provides a structure for discussing past international efforts to coordinate a strengthening of banking systems. The primary focus is the 2010 Basel negotiation to create new and more extensive internationally accepted regulations. Students can be encouraged to debate the basic concept of international rules, as well as possible versions of these rules. A central message is that such negotiations will likely continue indefinitely. China, India and other emerging nations have indicated that they are not prepared to enforce the 2010 Basel III. Furthermore, the process of analyzing banks' financial reports in order to develop evaluations of their position vis-à-vis the rules will likely be a long and complex process.<br><br>With each of the major issues, this case presents the rationales for change and the strengths of Basel III's provisions, as well as the weaknesses of the proposed changes.

This case is based on a Canadian real estate trust's need to obtain financing for a large capital expenditure at a time when credit markets have effectively frozen. Students are asked to evaluate the trust's financial statements to determine the amount of financing required, and then to evaluate alternatives in order to meet the financing gap. Students are also asked to value the project by using basic present-value techniques.

In the 1990s, considerable debate arose concerning the strength and stability of China's banks. Of particular concern were the debts owed to the banks by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Many SOEs were experiencing financial difficulties and so they might not have been able to repay these loans. Some analysts emphasized that, since the banks and the SOEs were both owned by the government, the only relevant concern was the financial strength of the government and its preparedness to take responsibility for any of the banks' non-performing loans. In the early years of the 21st century, the government undertook a widespread program aimed at improving the balance sheets at the banks by purchasing non-performing loans from the banks and then reselling these at a discount, often to foreign private sector financial institutions. Prior to 2010, this process provided a generally accepted faith in the stability and security of China's banks. Total non-performing loans as a per cent of total bank loans decreased from 20 per cent in 2003 to three per cent in 2008. The year 2010 brought a new realization that the non-performing loan problem had reappeared. However, China's banks now had private as well as government shareholders, and so the solution had become more complex. The government's response was to insist that China's banks increase their capital base by issuing new equity.

This note introduces the basic motivation behind Islamic finance and how it is implemented in practice. The note contains background regarding the religious principles underlying the practice of Islamic finance as well as a discussion of several products designed to be Shariah compliant and the means by which these products achieve this compliance.

Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are derivative instruments that allow investors protection against credit events such as downgrades of or defaults by single-name or a basket of obligors. Estimated by the Band of International Settlements to be at $32.6 trillion in December 2009, these instruments represent one of the largest and fastest growing financial product markets globally. This note is intended to introduce students to CDS, the pricing basics as well as the role in the 2008 subprime crisis.

The most recent recessionary period and credit crisis has precipitated discussions on the importance of stable financial systems. Many national governments are considering enacting stricter regulation on financial markets and bank liquidity. National and international supervisors will implement regulatory adjustments through coordinated efforts or independently in the next few years. There will be major developments in the banking industry within the near future.<br><br>This case provides a structure for discussing past international efforts to coordinate a strengthening of banking systems. The primary focus is the 2010 Basel negotiation to create new and more extensive internationally accepted regulations. Students can be encouraged to debate the basic concept of international rules, as well as possible versions of these rules. A central message is that such negotiations will likely continue indefinitely. China, India and other emerging nations have indicated that they are not prepared to enforce the 2010 Basel III. Furthermore, the process of analyzing banks’ financial reports in order to develop evaluations of their position vis-à-vis the rules will likely be a long and complex process.<br><br>With each of the major issues, this case presents the rationales for change and the strengths of Basel III’s provisions, as well as the weaknesses of the proposed changes.

This note provides an introduction to the financing terms and payment arrangements that support international trade. It describes the principal instruments of trade finance, the limited evidence on their relative use, and the international trade dispute resolution mechanisms that form the backdrop against which traders select financing terms.