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The acquisition of Torrington, Inc., from Ingersoll-Rand, Inc., required a strategy that met both the investment and financing objectives of the Timken Company. The case provides an excellent example of the principle that investment and financing decisions can be considered independently. Because of Timken's need to have a sequential financing strategy, the case illustrates the complexities of managing large investment decisions that affect a firm's capital structure. The case is best suited as a firm-valuation exercise in a first-year MBA finance course and is also suitable for executive and undergraduate audiences. Case exhibits are provided in a spreadsheet and the DCF valuation in the teaching note is provided in a spreadsheet for instructor use.

Intended to help teach students how to construct a financial model that can be used to prepare a business plan.

World Portal was a successful Internet portal. They had just received a letter from a Wall Street analyst expressing skepticism about their financial statement transparency. How would they respond to the analyst?

In 2003 a BCG survey found Rothschild Bank AG to be one of the most profitable private banks in the world. The bank's future, however, was surrounded by uncertainties related to new international regulations, increased competition as well as volatile financial markets. Rothschild bank's management was concerned to master these challenges and to assure that banks successful past will continue into the future. The task for students is to identify the key success drivers for Rothschild in the future.

In June 2003, General Motors Corp. (GM) successfully marketed the largest corporate debt offering in U.S. history, worth $17.6 billion. The offering included $13.6 billion worth of debt denominated in dollars, euros, and pounds and $4 billion dollars denominated in convertibles. GM announced that it would use the majority of these proceeds to shore up its heavily underfunded U.S.-defined pension plans. GM considered investing the entire contribution to its U.S. pension funds coming from the debt offering not in traditional investment grade bonds or stocks, but in a broad category GM called "alpha." GMAM believed this would help meet its new target annual return of 9%, reduce the probability of a negative return in any given year from 20% to 10%, and reduce the volatility of plan assets by 40%.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 206001

In December 1998, an intellectual property executive at DuPont pondered a new program for the 196-year-old company. The executive was reviewing a proposal to donate DuPont patents to universities around the United States. The move promised substantial financial benefits for DuPont-the company could save on fees to maintain the patents, and they could gain significant tax deductions. But should DuPont make such a donation, and if so, should it offer patents in the life sciences or in another discipline? Did the program hold any strategic or tax-related risks for DuPont?

This case describes the rights offering by CSM in 2002 which was largely judged to be a failure despite the company receiving the full planned proceeds. The case takes the reader through the rights offering process, and details the "hiccups" arising from adverse market conditions as well as process mismanagement. It also allows the reader to use actual data provided by several top broker research analysts to conduct a valuation exercise. Other questions addressed include: Does price matter in a rights offering? Are investors rational? How does one gauge the value of a project?

In early January 2005, Laurance Hoagland Jr., VP and CIO of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (HF), and his investment team met to finish their recommendations to the HF Investment Committee for a new asset allocation policy for the foundation's investment portfolio. If the proposal was approved, HF would adopt a new asset allocation policy that included a substantial reduction in the overall exposure of the investment portfolio to domestic public equities and a significant increase in the allocation to absolute return strategies and TIPS. Hoagland and this team also needed to decide on a complementary recommendation to the HF Investment Committee to pledge approximately 5% of the total value of the portfolio to Sirius V, the latest fund at Sirius Investments, which specialized in global distressed real estate investments.

In 2001, James O'Connell, president of Holyoke Japan, an affiliate of Larson Capital, a distress debt private equity firm, wants to bid on a 90 billion yen loan currently in default by the borrower, Sanjo Enterprises, for a popular wedding and banquet facility with an adjacent office tower in downtown Tokyo. O'Connell has to determine a bidding strategy, consider the competition, and price the deal.

In June 2003, 10 leading international banks adopted new voluntary guidelines, called the Equator Principles, to promote sustainable development in project finance. In recent years, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) had raised issues about the lenders' responsibilities in projects that could harm the environment and/or society. Although many banks had environmental policies in place, a uniform industry standard did not exist. The principles, borrowed from and with the active support of the World Bank's International Finance Corp. (IFC), established guidelines to ensure that banks financed only projects that were "socially responsible and reflected sound environmental management practices." Some NGOs applauded the banks' efforts, others criticized the principles for reasons related to their scope, implementation procedures, and enforcement mechanisms. The Equator banks had to decide what to do next. They could try to recruit more banks (and export credit agencies), develop implementation procedures, or respond to the criticism directly.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 205084

This note covers several frequently used methods to value early-stage companies and discusses some of the issues and difficulties encountered more generally in valuing privately held assets. The basic assumptions underlying the venture capital and the discounted cash flow methods of valuation are discussed in detail. In addition, the note attempts to provide some direction in making the appropriate trade-offs between the guidance provided by financial theory and the practical limitations posed by an illiquid asset class. A numerical example is given to highlight the key differences between the techniques.

In August 2002, the French retail giant Carrefour S.A. was considering alternative currencies for raising (euro) EUR750 million in the Eurobond market. Carrefour's investment bankers believed that the bonds can be issued at 5.25% in euros, 5.375% in British pounds, 3.625% in Swiss francs, and 5.5% in U.S. dollars. Despite the high nominal coupon rate and the lack of any material business activity in the United Kingdom, the British-pound issue appears to provide the lowest cost of funds. This case was designed to introduce topics in international finance such as interest-rate parity, currency risk management, and the Eurobond market. Students are tasked with exploring why forward-currency exchange rates vary from spot rates and proposing a Eurobond financing strategy for Carrefour.

Presents a comprehensive review of the valuation methods based on discounting cash flows or value creation metrics and shows, through simple example and a straightforward "how-to-do" framework, the perfect consistency and identity of their results under similar assumptions.

The case discusses the financial strategy of ING Direct, a telephone/internet retail bank that has been growing rapidly in eight countries. It presents both the deposit pricing strategy, and the asset allocation of the bank.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 205085

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 205112

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 205113