個案總覽

Neat is a financial technology (fintech) startup in Hong Kong that offers a basic alternative to those who had previously found it difficult to open bank accounts and access credit in Hong Kong. Having successfully launched a personal account in 2015, the company is facing the classic question of how to expand in a fast-growing and constantly evolving new industry, challenging established incumbents that have strong brands and image recognition. In the Fall of 2017, Neat evolved from its introduction of personal accounts to the launch of business accounts. Neat management was deciding how to take the business forward and, most importantly, how to develop profits. The students are asked to take the viewpoint of David Rosa and the Neat management and decide how to move forward in this environment.

In early April 2018, Spotify Technology SA (Spotify) had planned a rare direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Unlike typical initial public offerings (IPOs), which used investment banks as underwriters to help set an IPO price, Spotify's direct listing would allow market participants to determine the initial price. In a typical IPO, investment banks shopped the potential offer to various clients and, in the process of book building, determined a range for the offer when it started trading. They also often provided support for the issue on the day it started to trade, limiting the downside for shareholders if demand was low. In Spotify's case, the investment banks were only being paid a nominal fee, and Spotify was not raising capital in the offering. The stock simply started trading on the prescribed day. A portfolio manager with a hedge fund that focused on growing technology companies was considering investing in the firm, but faced a challenge: how could she estimate Spotify's value when it started to trade?

In 2016, a trial began to determine the future of Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation's $3 billion chapter 11 reorganization plan. The plan called for first and second lien secured creditors to receive new claims representing approximately 98% of the reorganized company's enterprise value, leaving unsecured creditors, owed $1.4 billion, to recover less than two cents on the dollar. The plan had the support of the secured creditors, but unsecured creditors were strongly opposed. At the heart of the unsecured creditors' objections to the plan was a dramatically different view on valuation. How much were Sabine's oil and gas reserves worth today? How much were they worth at the time Sabine filed for chapter 11? And, based on these valuations, what was a fair recovery for Sabine's creditors?

On June 21, 2016, Tesla Motors, Inc. announced its offer to acquire SolarCity, bringing CEO Elon Musk one step closer to completing his goal of moving the world from a hydrocarbon-based economy to a solar-electric one. Markets and analysts were mixed in their reaction to the announcement; some thought the deal would be a distraction to Tesla management at a critical time; others thought it was a "bailout" of SolarCity. Following weeks of due diligence, Tesla and SolarCity finalized their merger agreement and worked to justify the transaction. Joan Banister, a financial advisor, must prepare to address her clients' concerns about their various financial positions in Tesla and SolarCity.

Goldman Sachs acquired Imprint Capital Advisors, a small firm that specialized in advising clients on environmental/social/governance (ESG) and impact investments. The founders sold Imprint with the belief that joining a global financial firm would help to scale impact investing, if not bring it into the mainstream. The case is set two years after the acquisition. It describes impact investing, the founding of Imprint, and its evolution from serving foundations and home offices to financial institutions, and its sale to and integration within Goldman Sachs. The founders consider the past two years and whether the acquisition has, in fact, help to scale ESG/impact investing.

Spreadsheet supplement to case 218094.

Comparison of the U.S. Government response, using the $700 billion TARP fund, to downturns in the banking and auto industries during the global financial crisis.

At the end of 2017, Morgan Stanley's firm performance - the strongest since the financial crisis - is linked to the overall success of its corporate strategy set out in 2015. Following several years of development and integration of a sustainability strategy in sync with overall firm strategy, the case asks the question of what "version 2.0" of a sustainability strategy should look like for the firm. The question is posed by Audrey Choi (HBS MBA 2004), Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, and CEO of the Morgan Stanley Institution for Sustainable Development. Since joining the firm in 2007, Choi worked with senior management and key individuals in each of the firm's business segments to transition sustainability from being a niche initiative to being part of the broad firm-wide strategy, embedded across Morgan Stanley's core businesses. The case recounts the process of integrating sustainability into each of the firm's three business units and examines the challenges, the product development, and the outcomes of the integration strategy in order to pose the question of what should Morgan Stanley do to further embed and grow its sustainability strategy.

The case explores the murky world of tax havens and hidden wealth. The so-called 'Panama Papers', 'Paradise Papers', 'Swiss Leaks' and 'LuxLeaks' are essentially digital dumps that exposed where the the ultra-rich had for decades stashed their billions to evade paying taxes. Academics such as Gabriel Zucman have mined these revelations for insights about global wealth inequality. Their research and that of investigative journalists have put public policymakers under pressure to make laws to "regain control over globalized financial capitalism" as economist Thomas Piketty calls it, arguing that the continued legality of tax havens puts at stake the basic social contract on which democracies are founded, and that the resulting shortfall in tax revenues deprives advanced economies of resources for nation building for future generations.

After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the Chaudhary Group, a billion-dollar conglomerate in Nepal decides to play a pivotal role in re-building the country. The Group's philanthropic arm (Chaudhary Foundation) works with stakeholders and develops a blue print for short and long- term relief measures. The management needs to address several questions as they navigate the foundations' course. What element of relief work should the foundation focus on? Should they go beyond addressing the immediate need for shelters and adopt a more holistic development plan? How should they acquire technical expertise and organize themselves to successfully execute this effort? The case focuses on how businesses can drive entrepreneurship and disaster management efforts and be agents for social change in the emerging markets grappling with institutional voids. How should they work with the government in this endeavor? How do they ensure an alignment of these efforts to the group and foundation's long-term focus areas and objectives?

Student Spreadsheet for product 9B18N004.

In early 2014, Standard Chartered PLC, a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, England, announced its restructuring plan. The announcement triggered positive reactions in both stock and bond markets. Nevertheless, the eventual profitability was not what was expected. Moving forward into 2015, how would a rational investor have taken advantage of such a corporate restructuring event?

In December 2017, two news releases were issued by CSX Corporation (CSX) concerning its chief executive officer (CEO), who had been appointed nine months earlier based on his record of drastically cutting operating expenses. The first release indicated that the CEO had taken a medical leave of absence due to unexpected complications from a recent illness and that an acting CEO had been appointed. The next day, CSX shares dropped 7.6 per cent, erasing almost $4 billion in market value. The second release, two days later, indicated that the CEO had died. Subsequent news reports questioned the board’s initial decision to hire him. The events raised issues related to unlocking shareholder value, the role of boards, and the impact of activist shareholders. Did the board do sufficient due diligence surrounding the CEO’s health when he was initially hired? Was the CEO’s vision and strategy more important than its implementation? Was the hiring of this CEO short-term thinking?

In early 2014, Standard Chartered PLC, a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, England, announced its restructuring plan. The announcement triggered positive reactions in both stock and bond markets. Nevertheless, the eventual profitability was not what was expected. Moving forward into 2015, how would a rational investor have taken advantage of such a corporate restructuring event?

Student spreadsheet for case W18176.

In December 2017, two news releases were issued by CSX Corporation (CSX) concerning its chief executive officer (CEO), who had been appointed nine months earlier based on his record of drastically cutting operating expenses. The first release indicated that the CEO had taken a medical leave of absence due to unexpected complications from a recent illness and that an acting CEO had been appointed. The next day, CSX shares dropped 7.6 per cent, erasing almost $4 billion in market value. The second release, two days later, indicated that the CEO had died. Subsequent news reports questioned the board's initial decision to hire him. The events raised issues related to unlocking shareholder value, the role of boards, and the impact of activist shareholders. Did the board do sufficient due diligence surrounding the CEO's health when he was initially hired? Was the CEO's vision and strategy more important than its implementation? Was the hiring of this CEO short-term thinking?

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a leading Indian multinational conglomerate, has been following a dividend policy that consistently pays its shareholders a steady and increasing dividend for years. But during the same period, the company's stock price has been in decline due to a myriad of factors, including a decline in return on investment capital. As a growth-driven company, RIL has made continuing investments to expand capacity in its core oil refinery business, as well as a major investment in a new telecom unit that is due to launch across India. To balance the capital need for growth with the shareholder's need to maximize wealth, Mukesh Ambani, board chairman and managing director, has to come up with an optimal dividend policy. What factors should he consider? How relevant is the dividend policy to stock prices? What kind of policy should he come up with? The case discusses the types of dividend policies and the relevance of a company's dividend policy to its shareholder's investment behavior. It will explore the dividends irrelevance theory by M. H. Miller and F. Modigliani, and the dividend relevance theory by Myron J. Gordon and John Lintner. The dividend discount model is also used to analyze the relevance of dividend policy to shareholders' value.

In February 2011, Adam Koppel, a Managing Director at Brookside Capital, the public equity arm of Bain Capital, must decide whether to increase or exit the firm's position in Celgene Corporation. News has emerged that raises potential safety concerns associated with Celgene's key drug, Revlimid. In response, Celgene's share price has traded down 20% in the last two months, and is now almost 10% below the level where Brookside made their initial investment.

In February 2011, Adam Koppel, a Managing Director at Brookside Capital, the public equity arm of Bain Capital, must decide whether to increase or exit the firm's position in Celgene Corporation. News has emerged that raises potential safety concerns associated with Celgene's key drug, Revlimid. In response, Celgene's share price has traded down 20% in the last two months, and is now almost 10% below the level where Brookside made their initial investment.

This case is based on Citibank's consumer banking business in Hong Kong which aims to capture the impact of emerging fintech technologies and its impact on consumer banking behavior. The case explains about fintech, its evolution, especially in China and Hong Kong, and dives deeper into the three areas where Citibank product delivery could be enhanced using technology: basic transactional services, value-added services and, lastly, being able to provide a fintech ecosystem that would allow greater engagement with customers.