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The chief financial officer of Pixonix Inc. is trying to decide if she should hedge, given the current strength of the Canadian dollar. Her company licenses proprietary software through a U.S. company that will cost $7.5 million in three months time. The case provides the students with the opportunity to understand the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on her firm's cash flows and some of the instruments available to manage risk, including puts and calls and forward contracts.

The financial system is the heart of free market economies. The 2007-2008 financial crisis raised concerns that the global financial and economic system might experience a truly substantial collapse. New financial instruments had proliferated to the degree that it had become impossible to calculate the market value of many of them, and so it had become impossible to know the market value of institutions that held them or that guaranteed them. The initial disaster occurred with the U.S. subprime residential mortgage market, but it quickly spread globally to institutions that held new financial instruments related to these mortgages. Firms that had guaranteed these financial instruments found that their net worth was disappearing, leading to concerns about the institutions that had relied on their guarantees. Meanwhile, new kinds of hedge funds introduced the risk of greater volatility, and they exposed investors to sudden shocks. Many banks were caught in this web and suddenly had to obtain additional equity capital in order to meet regulatory requirements and maintain the confidence of depositors. As a result of these developments, liquidity disappeared from the financial system. It seemed that recession in the United States was inevitable. Previous expectations that other economies had become decoupled for the United States were being replaced by fears that economies throughout the world would follow the United States into recession. Central banks reacted dramatically with attempts to reduce interest rates and to increase financial liquidity, and the U.S. government cut personal taxes through a tax refund program. It was not clear whether monetary and fiscal policies could prevent a long and deep recession. Debate arose concerning the advisability of a wide variety of new regulations that might be able to prevent future recurrence of such a financial crisis.

Spreadsheet Supplement for 294038.

In late 2007, EcoSecurities had to decide whether to undertake a new Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in China. EcoSecurities was an aggregator of carbon credits and also invested directly in projects that produced carbon credits. Governments and firms required to cut their greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol could use carbon credits to fulfill part of their compliance obligations. As demand for UN-issued carbon credits rose, the UN approval process had become increasingly burdensome. The Ventilation Air Methane Project was an opportunity to break into a new sector with large potential, and the economics and risks of the project needed to be assessed.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 208151

Over the last 10 years, the number of publicly traded companies that have had to restate financial results has risen dramatically. Regardless of whether the restatements stemmed from the aggressive application of accounting standards or the need to correct intentional distortion of results by management, the outcome was often the same: a sudden and significant loss of shareholder value. In many cases, the restatement process led to significant turmoil within the company, including investigations by financial regulators, the resignation of chief executives and other senior officials, wide-scale restructuring and employee layoffs, and lawsuits against the board of directors, auditors, and other involved parties. The effects on the organization were often felt for years, taking a significant financial and reputational toll. This case examines five categories of financial restatements, as defined by Charles W. Mulford and Eugene E. Comiskey: recognizing premature or fictitious revenue, aggressive capitalization and extended amortization of expenses, misreporting assets and liabilities, other income statement items, and problems with cash flow reporting. Examples are provided for each category based on the events at Catalina Marketing, Krispy Kreme, Royal Dutch Shell, Royal Ahold, Nortel Networks, and Parmalat.

The financial system is the heart of free market economies. The 2007-2008 financial crisis raised concerns that the global financial and economic system might experience a truly substantial collapse. New financial instruments had proliferated to the degree that it had become impossible to calculate the market value of many of them, and so it had become impossible to know the market value of institutions that held them or that guaranteed them. The initial disaster occurred with the U.S. subprime residential mortgage market, but it quickly spread globally to institutions that held new financial instruments related to these mortgages. Firms that had guaranteed these financial instruments found that their net worth was disappearing, leading to concerns about the institutions that had relied on their guarantees. Meanwhile, new kinds of hedge funds introduced the risk of greater volatility, and they exposed investors to sudden shocks. Many banks were caught in this web and suddenly had to obtain additional equity capital in order to meet regulatory requirements and maintain the confidence of depositors. As a result of these developments, liquidity disappeared from the financial system. It seemed that recession in the United States was inevitable. Previous expectations that other economies had become "decoupled" for the United States were being replaced by fears that economies throughout the world would follow the United States into recession. Central banks reacted dramatically with attempts to reduce interest rates and to increase financial liquidity, and the U.S. government cut personal taxes through a tax refund program. It was not clear whether monetary and fiscal policies could prevent a long and deep recession. Debate arose concerning the advisability of a wide variety of new regulations that might be able to prevent future recurrence of such a financial crisis.

This short case challenges students to review a series of corporate financial metrics and to match them to one of the thirteen industries listed for them.

A Chinese investment banker is performing due diligence on the potential acquisition of a Canadian manufacturer of health care products. Among her tasks is the need to put a value on the acquisition target. Her client is an independently wealthy investor and chair of Great Wall Holdings (Great Wall). Great Wall was a privately held conglomerate with interests in a wide range of companies. The investment banker is interested in diversifying his holdings outside of China and was especially interested in gaining a modest foothold in the manufacture of health care products in North America.

A sales representative for Monster Computer Corporation was working with the head of data processing of a major account to develop a financial justification for the company to purchase $9 million of computer and storage hardware and other peripherals, which would replace an existing data processing installation. The potential customer had estimated the savings to be achieved by the new equipment. Working with this estimate and financial information about the client company, the sales representative must undertake a rigorous capital budgeting analysis to help the potential customer sell the project to the financial people in the company. The case provides students with an opportunity to analyze a simple capital expenditure. They are required to develop a discount rate, based upon costs of funds, and to utilize that discount rate to value the cash flows expected. Information is provided about the likelihood of receiving the expected cash flows, so that expected NPV and IRR values may be determined. There is ample room for discussion about the costs of debt and equity to use the weights to be applied. Additionally, the affect of expected inflation must be factored into the analysis.

The chief executive (CEO) of Cequel Energy, Inc. (Cequel) is trying to choose between three options: continue operating Cequel as is, selling it, or converting part of the company into an income trust (in combination with another similarly sized firm). The CEO's key concern is the relative valuation of the three options. Other key issues include the management team's preferences and an impending tax horizon. This case can be used as an introduction to corporate finance and valuation using multiples. It also allows for consideration of the impact of taxes on valuation and could provide a useful tool to discuss tax policy given changes in the tax treatment of income trusts that occurred subsequent to the case.

How do financial policy requirements and benefits of ownership concentration affect the need for and process of corporate restructuring? This case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the restructuring of a Turkish multinational business group by way of a merger. Finansbank AŞ is a bank headquartered in Turkey with additional operations in Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Romania, and Ukraine. It was founded by Hüsnü Özyeğin in 1987, and in April 2006, the National Bank of Greece (NBG) offered to buy part of the bank. Students can consider which factors contributed to Finansbank's growth and success. In order to then assess the terms of NBG's offer, they can evaluate given valuations of the bank and analyze why the proposed deal is structured so that Özyeğin retains a stake and buys back the non-Turkish operations. Students can also consider the offer from the perspective of minority shareholders.

Following the scandals involving Enron, WorldCom, and Qwest Communications, the accounting profession has spent the past several years trying to get back on track. While Sarbanes-Oxley may improve the decision-making of audit professionals, and help prevent future large-scale catastrophes that hurt stockholders and bring down firms, there is another problem in public accounting that few consider and nobody has proposed to solve: deviant workplace behavior. Previous research describes deviant workplace behavior as the voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and, in so doing, threatens the well being of the organization and/or its members. Building from recent work in various business literatures, this is the first research since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley to examine workplace deviance at Big 4 accounting firms. Taking a cross-disciplinary, collaborative approach, the authors endeavor to explain why workplace deviance has infiltrated accounting firms and how it is undermining their effectiveness and derailing their long-term prospects for success. After describing its genesis and effects, the authors prescribe several managerial strategies for preventing deviance and minimizing its effects on a firm.

How do financial policy requirements and benefits of ownership concentration affect the need for and process of corporate restructuring? This case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the restructuring of a Turkish multinational business group by way of a merger. Finansbank AŞ is a bank headquartered in Turkey with additional operations in Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Romania, and Ukraine. It was founded by Hüsnü Özyeğin in 1987, and in April 2006, the National Bank of Greece (NBG) offered to buy part of the bank. Students can consider which factors contributed to Finansbank's growth and success. In order to then assess the terms of NBG's offer, they can evaluate given valuations of the bank and analyze why the proposed deal is structured so that Özyeğin retains a stake and buys back the non-Turkish operations. Students can also consider the offer from the perspective of minority shareholders.

This case describes the proposed acquisition of Tribune Company by Sam Zell in 2007. Tribune Company is one of the largest newspapers and broadcasting companies in the United States. Zell's proposed acquisition is unusual in several respects. It is two-tiered, employs an ESOP as the acquisition vehicle, involves a high degree of leverage as well as significant asset sales, and Zell himself will own almost no common stock in the post-deal Tribune. The case is set in late October 2007, at which point the first stage of the acquisition has been completed, but the second stage has not. Recent deterioration in both Tribune's operating results and credit market conditions make it unclear whether the transaction can be closed as scheduled in 2007, or indeed at all.

Vikram Akula, CEO of SKS Microfinance, seeks a venture capital investment to fund his firm. SKS, one of the largest and fastest growing microfinance institutions in India, is a profitable, for profit institution with a social mission. In what is one of the first commercial financing deals in the world, Akula must decide at what value to sell equity in SKS, and to whom to sell it. The case focuses on valuation, which is difficult because at the time there are no publicly traded comparable companies, and the strategic aspects of raising money.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 208137.

Within the context of a fictitious hedge fund, a new analyst has been asked to use value at risk (VaR) to evaluate two potential additions to its portfolio of funds. The case introduces a number of different methods of calculating VaR using many of the most common parametric and simulation-based techniques.

A new analyst is tasked with characterizing the returns from different funds and using the analysis to draw conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the different funds for the firm's clients. The case focuses on the examination of financial data using a variety of different statistical techniques.