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Institutional investors, who now own a majority of the voting stock of publicly traded U.S. companies, have an influence on the way these companies are run. And given their influence, institutions are under increasing pressure to become activist shareholders. But institutional investors are not interested in the day-to-day management of any portfolio company; their goal is to achieve their clients' financial objectives. To decide whether and when to become active, an institutional investor compares the expected costs of a course of action, from a proxy fight to an informal discussion with management, with the expected benefits, which are difficult both to predict and to measure. If corporate executives understood what motivates the decision making of institutional investors, they would realize that institutions are not out to take control of U.S. corporations or to lobby for the German-Japanese model of intense institutional involvement. Given the rigors of the cost-benefit test, activism turns out to be the best strategy in very few cases.

The commercial account manager at the main branch of the Crown Bank of Canada in Chicoutimi, Quebec, received a line of credit request from Materiaux Boisvert, a hardware and building materials company. Materiaux Boisvert was recently purchased by new owners, who were given a maximum line of credit of $1.6 million with the understanding that the loan would be re-evaluated after several months of operation. The commercial account manager was expecting a request of $1.8 million, but was surprised to find a request for $2.2 million. He must now analyze the company's past and future financial position in order to prepare for a meeting with the new owners to discuss the loan request.

A small company faces the dilemma of how to finance growth (i.e., internally generated cash flows vs. outside financing sources). An innovative concept positions the company in promoting a niche within the kitchen-cabinet industry and in looking for an optimal way of leveraging that concept for fast growth.

The CEO is preparing a recommendation to the board regarding several potential outside investments in the company, which is currently operating in bankruptcy. In making his decision, the CEO has to consider various financial and strategic factors, including possible synergy benefits and support for the company's huge planned expenditures on new aircraft. To assess the relative merits of the competing investment proposals, it is also necessary to value the company's assets and prescribe a new capital structure for the company after it leaves Chapter 11. Tax factors are extremely important in the analysis. The final decision must be acceptable to the company's creditors and be compatible with allowed U.S. bankruptcy practices.

This case provides an explanation of the adjusted present value method for valuing capital assets. The authors believe this approach is generally simple and better for the complicated and changing capital structure found in restructuring.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 294047

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 294025.

A small California-based money manager is now offering specialty products for institutional investors based upon recent financial research findings.

The vice-president of Advanced Technologies contemplates the appropriate strategy to manage the firm's U.S. dollar exposure. Alternatives considered include call options, forwards, and tunnels.

Genzyme Corp.'s financing history is unusual compared to most biotech companies. This case presents the sequence of financings employed by Genzyme, along with the product--market and corporate-development strategies adopted by Henri Termeer, Genzyme's CEO. As such, the case permits students to evaluate the sequence of financings as a "program" rather than a series of unrelated deals and to consider them in light of the business strategy.

A private company is considering an introduction of a long-run incentive compensation system in which payoffs to managers are determined by the economic value added for shareholders by their individual business units. The proposed new system is compared to a number of earlier incentive schemes utilized by the firm.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 293091

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 293135

Spreadsheet Supplement case for 293137

This case describes Pepsico's program to restructure its Mexican bottling network. It wants to work with existing bottlers and find an organizational arrangement that will allow the bottlers to grow and change with the Mexican soft drink industry.

Involves analysis of a major capital investment proposal, an acquisition of another company, an estimate of the funds required for these two possible outlays, and a recommended course of management action.

Senior managers at large companies may think that occupancy costs are too insignificant to worry about, too technical to analyze, and too fixed to control. But occupancy costs can hurt a company's earnings, share value, and overall performance. To manage occupancy costs, managers must be able to identify their components, measure their impact, understand what drives them, and develop options to change them. Four basic tools help diagnose problems: a cost history, a loss analysis, a component analysis, and a lease aging profile. Executives also must understand cost drivers like leasing, location, and layout.

In early 1992, Lehman Brothers had received a mandate from its affiliate, American Express Travel Related Services (TRS) Co., to securitize a portion of its consumer charge-card receivables portfolio. It is now July 22, and Lehman and TRS have just returned from a "road show" that was undertaken to convince prospective investors of the merits of these new securities. Lehman must now price the securities. Because this is the first-ever securitization of charge-card receivables, there are no directly comparable benchmarks that can help in pricing. However, the securities share common features with credit-card receivables backed securities, which by now are well accepted. Another comparable is non-callable finance company debt. This deal is being watched closely by competing underwriters, investors, and senior management at TRS and Lehman. "Success" could catapult Lehman into becoming a major player in the asset-backed market whereas "failure" would be a major setback.

American Express (TRS) Co. is considering a proposal to securitize a portion of their consumer charge-card receivables portfolio. In the past, they have relied exclusively on a captive finance subsidiary, Credco, to perform this function. The proposed securitization structure has been put forth by Lehman Brothers and relies heavily on the existing structure of credit-card receivables' securitizations. The growing asset-backed securities market presents TRS an opportunity to diversify its sources of funds--however, there are reasons to be cautious. Due to recent downgrades of American Express and Credco debt, the perceived financial weakness of credit-card receivable backed securities issuers, and the proposal's sophisticated securitization structure, TRS is concerned that 1) The market may perceive securitization as a sign of weakness; 2) The securitization may not be cost effective. Therefore, TRS has to decide whether or not to proceed with securitization at this time.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 293120