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Preston Resources, a small Australian gold mining company, bought the Bulong nickel mine for A$319 million in November 1998 and financed the acquisition by issuing a US$185 million (A$294 million) project bond. At the time, mining had been underway for several months, and construction of the processing plant was essentially complete. Almost from the beginning, however, a series of design and operating problems shut down production and required costly repairs. Although processing performance improved by late 2000, maintenance issues continued to plague the plant, and output remained significantly below forecast levels. This case, set in 2002, concerns the financial consequences of these problems, including a bond default in January 2000 and Preston's efforts to restructure the project debt.

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.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 203034

This case covers the general characteristics of convertible securities and briefly discusses their history, investors, issuers, and method of valuation.

Innomedia Logic Inc. produces and distributes voice over Internet protocol hardware. An increasing demand for this technology and the entry of other companies into the sector have created a highly competitive market. Despite these challenges, Innomedia Logic has grown to a successful operation in just a few years and has projected substantial revenue increases for the next two years. The president, and major shareholder, has received an unsolicited offer for 100 per cent of the company's equity. He must consider how an exit strategy will affect the other seven shareholders and determine whether he would receive greater value if he sells now or if he should continue to grow the company and contemplate a sale in the future.

A biotechnology and drug research company has an anti-cancer compound that is ready for further development. The company faces two options. It can form a licensing agreement with a large pharmaceutical partner that would fund the necessary clinical studies and bear much of the risk. The pharmaceutical company would assume an equity position within the drug research company and would also receive licensing rights to any compounds that successfully result from the research. The other option is to create a spin-off company with venture capitalists. The stand-alone company would be able to focus on realizing the potential of the new compound, but the drug research company would lose majority control. The vice-president of business development must decide how to proceed in order to maximize value to his company and to the investors.

Uses a numerical example to demonstrate that when you discount the cash flows to capital from a project at the weighted average cost of capital, you get same net present value result as you obtain when discounting the cash flows to equity at the cost of equity. Also demonstrates why it is far easier to do a net present value calculation using the weighted average cost of capital (assuming a fixed debt ratio and market value weights) than it is to do the same calculation using the cost of equity.

This is the fourth in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice. This technical note introduces the concept of endogeneity bias with specific coverage of omitted variable bias. Students who read this note will understand why omitting key predictors can sometimes bias the coefficients of included variables. The note illustrates omitted variable bias by means of an extended example and offers practical advice for model building that balances the desire for parsimony developed in a previous note with the need to limit omitted variable bias.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 202128

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 202126

This case examines the changes in fund structures proposed by four venture capital firms in 2002: Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The venture capital market has experienced a major downturn, and these funds are trying to address investor concerns.

An investment analyst has been asked to evaluate an investment in the project financing for Ras Laffan, a liquefied natural gas venture in the Middle East between Qatar and Mobil Corp. In order to make a suitable recommendation to the investment board, she must present, the potential returns, the various risks and their possible resolutions. Her analysis must address the political risks amid an atmosphere of instability of the Middle East, commodity price risks in an industry with a history of price volatility, possible foreign exchange risks of dealing in two currencies with historic fluctuations and the commercial risks of the reliance on a single customer who will account for 90 per cent of sales. Medium-term non-recourse financing is one option available for financing the project. She also knows that the quality of her analysis may influence whether or not the investment board will consider her capable of running her own fund in the future.

LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton (France) acquired a large interest in the Gucci Group (Italy and Netherlands) in January 1990. Gucci accused LVMH of undertaking a "creeping acquisition" and refused to cooperate in LVMH's efforts to gain representation in Gucci's management. The case details the actions of the purported takeover attempt, and the defense mechanisms employed by Gucci. The defenses employed included the use of a poison pill and a white knight. Ultimately, Gucci found a white knight, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) of France to save it from LVMH's unwanted advances. The primary question, which the case addresses, is whether the actions taken by Gucci's management in defending its independence were actually in the best interests of shareholders.

Set in May 2000, these cases reflect the separate perspectives of the CEOs as they approach the negotiations of TSE International to acquire Yeats Valves. The task for the student is to complete a valuation analysis of the target and buyer, and to negotiate a price and exchange ratio with the counterparty. Each case contains a financial forecast only for that side; therefore an important element in the negotiation is to obtain the private information of the other side, analyze it, and successfully negotiate terms of acquisition. The cases are relatively simple, and are offered as a first exercise in the valuation of the firm and negotiation of an acquisition.

This case is ideal for analyzing the currency, liquidity, operating interest-rate, and other types of risk that a bank faces, especially a bank in emerging markets as it was hit during the Asian crisis of 1997. The students can also learn and apply the KMV model to estimate bankruptcy risk.

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Jack and Bruce Aspen must decide how they want to grow their commercial real estate finance company during a time of tremendous change in the industry.

In January 2002, speculators in the finance community suspected that Ha Chung Fong, chairman of Fountain Set (Holdings) Ltd., might be in the mood to reconsider a previous proposal to privatize the company. Ha was dissatisfied with the counter's trading volume, and some managers of the firm also believed that the share price did not reflect its true value. In 1995, Fountain Set had attempted to privatize by way of a scheme of arrangement under Section 166 of the company's ordinance. The scheme was later abandoned due to difficulties in reaching an agreement between the company's consortium shareholders and also problems in ascertaining the proportion of the holders of the company's convertible notes. With the redemption of the convertible notes in 1999, financial analysts believed that privatizing the company would not be as difficult as in 1995.

A respected dentist wants to expand his office space to accommodate his growing business and has approached his bank for funding of the project. The newly appointed manager of commercial accounts considers the loan request. He wants to ensure his assumptions are reasonable to minimize the risk. He must analyse the financial performance and financial statements, determine the type of loan required and evaluate alternatives.