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In 2017, hedge fund Mantle Ridge acquired less than 5 per cent of the stock of CSX Corporation (CSX) and made demands for board representation as well as the installation of a new chief executive officer (CEO) of CSX. This new CEO had abruptly resigned from Canadian Pacific (CP) and joined forces with Mantle Ridge at the time the fund announced its activist position in CSX. On February 14, 2017, CSX management announced a special meeting and shareholders’ vote to respond to Mantle Ridge’s demands, which included a compensation package for this new CEO, estimated at $300 million. In light of the improvements at CP, could the same model be implemented successfully at CSX? If so, was the proposed compensation package for an incoming CEO justified? The chief investment officer of a large U.S. pension fund, has been asked to vote at the upcoming meeting and faces two main questions: Should she vote in favour of approving the package? Alternatively, should she sell CSX stock now?

In 2017, hedge fund Mantle Ridge acquired less than 5 per cent of the stock of CSX Corporation (CSX) and made demands for board representation as well as the installation of a new chief executive officer (CEO) of CSX. This new CEO had abruptly resigned from Canadian Pacific (CP) and joined forces with Mantle Ridge at the time the fund announced its activist position in CSX. On February 14, 2017, CSX management announced a special meeting and shareholders' vote to respond to Mantle Ridge's demands, which included a compensation package for this new CEO, estimated at $300 million. In light of the improvements at CP, could the same model be implemented successfully at CSX? If so, was the proposed compensation package for an incoming CEO justified? The chief investment officer of a large U.S. pension fund, has been asked to vote at the upcoming meeting and faces two main questions: Should she vote in favour of approving the package? Alternatively, should she sell CSX stock now?

Redfin, a technology-powered residential real estate brokerage, was founded in 2002 with the intention of using technology to disrupt the real estate industry. Over the next 15 years, Redfin made several changes to its business model. Initially, the company provided less support than a traditional real estate brokerage but helped home buyers and sellers save more money. Over time, in response to customer feedback, Redfin increased the level of customer service it provided while decreasing the amount customers saved, instead relying on its unique online tools to differentiate itself from other real estate brokerages. In July 2017, Redfin went public at a $1.73 billion valuation. Now, in late 2017, CEO Glenn Kelman had to decide what Redfin's top strategic priority should be. Redfin could try to increase its market share, which was currently less than 2% even in the company's top markets, or it could focus on balancing costs and improving its bottom line.

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolio to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapon manufacturers stocks or overweighting LGBTQ friendly companies, while still closely tracking the overall stock market performance. Bolstered by $3.25M in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, in 2017 OpenInvest was also preparing to launch an app targeted at millennials customers that would include a novel proxy voting feature that allowed clients to vote on shareholder resolutions with a simple swipe. With this technological addition OpenInvest was well on its way towards realizing its mission of democratizing SRI investing, bringing transparency to the financial services market, and enabling retail investors to invest their capital in a way that aligned with their values. However, getting to scale and profitability in the crowded robo-advisors space was a critical challenge. The case closes with the founders contemplating expanding or migrating their model from B2C to B2B in order to achieve scale and profitability faster. The case is an opportunity to discuss the theoretical underpinning of creating impact in public markets, to explore how portfolio performance may be affected by Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) screens; and to understand drivers of demand for impacting investing more broadly. The case also explores the challenges the founders face when aiming to design a new product to meet an emerging need, and which distribution channel to choose for doing so.

In January 2018, Caelan Langan, an associate at KSW Partners LLC ("KSW"), was asked by Katherine Scott, the partner for whom he worked, to recommend a proposed structure to acquire a prominent office building in San Francisco for their most recent fund. Caelan was asked to review potential acquisition structures that would minimize the impact of taxes on their investors' returns. The assignment was complicated as KSW had different categories of investors (a sovereign wealth fund, pension funds and high net worth individuals) each of which had different tax considerations. The differing interests created significant potential conflicts in terms of how to manage the investment and when to sell the building, as the economic consequences to each category of investor were not the same. Even the economic interests of KSW were not completely aligned with their investors. The case outlines the alternative investment structures that could be considered: REITs, Limited Partnerships, C Corporations, and combinations of those entities. The case illustrates how to manage the potential conflicts and the important consequences of tax policy on how investments are structured. Students are asked to model the results of alternative investment structures and determine what Caelan's recommendation should be.

It is March 2017 and TPG, a global alternative investment firm with $74 billion assets under management, has recently launched its inaugural impact investing fund-the $2 billion Rise Fund. In an effort to "take the religion out of impact investing," Mike Stone, CIO of Rise, has partnered with Chris Addy at The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consultancy, to develop an evidence-based methodology for quantifying the impact of prospective Rise investments. Together, they have come up with a framework that ultimately generates an impact multiple of money (IMM), a measure of the social value created by a company per equity dollar invested. If a company fails to meet the IMM threshold, Rise will not invest in it. The case finds Stone and Maya Chorengel (HBS MBA '97), Rise's senior partner for impact, debating whether to make Rise's first investment in EverFi, an educational technology company that offers a range of online educational programming to its K-12 school, university, and corporate clients.

This case is set in 2017, three years after Fullerton Myanmar (FFMCL), a microfinance institution (MFI) in Myanmar, was founded by Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), a Singapore-based firm that invests and operates financial institutions in Asian emerging markets. Since its inception, FFMCL has been able to establish itself as one of the top five MFIs in Myanmar in terms of loans outstanding, despite numerous challenges related to the country's limited infrastructure, competition from other MFIs, the dispersion of the population and the difficulty in reaching rural communities. To achieve its mission of "Enabling Success, Enriching Lives", FFMCL has demonstrated tremendous growth in providing loans to microenterprises in Myanmar through the use of technology. The company has established an ambitious growth plan of expanding coverage fivefold in the next five years, and its leadership is pondering what is the best strategy it should follow to achieve this plan. Given the advances in technology as it relates to mobile financial services and big data analytics, what role does technology play in FFCML's plan, and what strategy should the company follow to achieve its plan?

In the year 2016, after more than a decade of loss-making, Air India posted an operating profit of INR 1.05 billion. Over the years, Air India's greatest problem has been its crippling debt. At the end of fiscal 2014-15, the airline had a total debt of INR 513.67 billion. While the airline managed to phase out more than INR 50 billion of debt from its books during the year 2015-16, its total debt still stood at INR 460 billion. In order to facilitate the revival of Air India, Ashwani Lohani, known as the "turnaround man", was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of Air India. As Lohani piloted Air India towards revival, efforts were being made to convert INR 100 billion of Air India's debt into equity, a move that would substantially reduce its interest burden and give banks a major say in its functioning. Lohani was in talks with banks and investors who could play a critical role in Air India's debt restructuring. Lohani mulled over the various options related to debt restructuring. It remained to be seen whether Lohani's image as the "turnaround man" coupled with Air India's operating profits would increase investor confidence and help Air India deal with its debt burden. While Air India's modest operating profit was good news, it remained to be seen if it could provide relief to the sick airline's actual financials. It also remained to be seen whether Lohani's attempts at improving employee relations with the organization and the operational changes he was introducing to Air India could help turn the tide for the ailing airline. As of July, 2017, two questions remained: Had Air India really turned the corner under Lohani's leadership? Could Air India's short-term progress help it to overcome the huge debt that had become the "elephant in the room"?

This case examines Blue Haven Initiative (BHI), an impact investing fund and family office, and one of its investments, PEGAfrica (PEG). BHI founder Liesel Pritzker Simmons' motivations for using her family wealth to start a family office focused on impact investing, as well as BHI's approach and strategy, including direct and indirect investments, fund manager selection, total returns, sourcing and due diligence of direct investments, and other aspects. The case explores a specific investment decision in depth. In May 2017, Pritzker Simmons and BHI Director of Private Investments Lauren Cochran were considering whether to invest an additional $1 million in PEG's upcoming $5 million Series B round, at a $20 million pre-money valuation. PEG offered pay-as-you-go (PAYG) financing plans that allowed customers to make small payments via mobile money to pay off financing for the solar equipment over time. The case details PEG's business model, growth strategy, financial structure, and the landscape of investment capital in West Africa during the time of the case.

In the fall of 2017, Beneficial State Bank, a triple bottom line community development bank serving areas of California, Oregon, and Washington, had completed its fourth successive year of normalized profitability while continuing to fulfill its mission of promoting social justice and environmental sustainability. Having grown roughly 20 percent organically by loan and deposit growth annually, as well as through three aligned acquisitions, Beneficial State Bank was well on its way to proving its beneficial banking model as well as the impact of its operations on individuals, communities, and the banking system at large. At the same time, husband and wife creators of the bank, Tom Steyer (MBA '83) and Kat Taylor (JD/MBA '86), found themselves at a crossroads. As the sole providers of capital to the bank during the formation and, as a result of the bank's unique organizational structure, the couple remained the only investors in the bank almost a decade after its founding. With the bank's assets approaching $1 billion, the team envisioned scaling the business for both economic viability and impact to nearly five times the current size in the coming years. In order to achieve this goal, however, the founders would have to consider the introduction of additional investors. This case describes the motivating factors for changing the bank's existing capital structure and includes a discussion of a potential investment option to fulfill these goals. Additional topics include prospective investors, existing capitalization and growth prospects, and the role of mergers and acquisitions.

In December 2017, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE, a Dutch coffee company) made an offer to acquire OldTown Berhad (OTB), a Malaysian coffee company. Three large shareholders, representing more than half of the outstanding shares, have agreed to tender their shares and analysts who follow OTB are recommending that investors accept the offer. The remaining shareholders must decide if the acquisition offer is reasonable and whether to tender their shares or not.

The case examines the reforms to the French labour code made by President Emmanuel Macron after his election in April 2017, essentially designed to loosen restrictions on hiring and firing. The new laws gave smaller companies more flexibility in negotiating wages and conditions directly with employees (rather than being bound by industry-wide collective deals negotiated by trade unions) and the right to lay off workers in periods of economic difficulty. In the context of an upturn, Macron was hoping the reforms would encourage foreign investment such as financial institutions relocating in response to Brexit. He resorted to issuing executive decrees (ordonnances) to avoid the massive street protests typically sparked by macro-economic adjustments in France, ultimately consolidating his leadership at home and in the larger European Union.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 218039.

Colombia conceived its 4G (Fourth Generation) Road Program to try to attract $17 billion from the private sector for investment in toll roads. The nation had also created the National Infrastructure Agency of Colombia (ANI) to oversee multiple investments, and the National Development Fund (FDN) as a credit enhancement vehicle. By 2017, Colombia had largely recovered from the "bad times" and was viewed as one of Andean Nations' success stories. Colombia was rapidly expanding its seaports, airports, power grid, and, particularly, its road network to link multiple metropolitan and rural areas across its mountain-riddled territory. Private-public partnerships were used since the federal budget did not have enough cash flow or credit to fund a vast road building program. The 4G Program featured improvements as compared to earlier-generation programs, making it more attractive to private investors. These included newly crafted contracts, shared risks between private and public parties, and liquidity lines of credit provided by FDN.