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Asahi India Glass Limited faces a situation encountered by many growing companies after having funded its diversification from retained earnings and debt, both in rupees and foreign currency. An over-reliance on borrowed funds without a matching infusion of equity has plunged the company into losses. To reduce its need for financial leverage, the company has issued equity shares on a rights basis, which has helped but is insufficient to reduce its debt burden. The company’s management is seeking alternatives to further deleverage the company’s capital structure but is finding it difficult due to losses in the recent past, the adverse operating environment created by the global economic crisis and a slowdown in the major segments in which it operates.

In December 2012, the senior management team of Whole Foods Market Inc. was contemplating the company’s options for international expansion, including further expansion in Canada. The company, headquartered in Austin, Texas, was a natural and organic foods supermarket that had become known and trademarked as “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store.” It had seen steep growth since its inception in 1977 and had an appetite for more. Ten years ago, its first Canadian store was opened in Toronto, followed by three more stores in Ontario and four in British Columbia. Was it time to expand deeper now and, if yes, into which provinces? It would be interesting to expand into Quebec with a store location in Montreal, but that province had a strong union presence, which was inconsistent with the company’s culture. Also unclear was which management team should be running an extensive Canadian operation. Should the current U.S. team facilitate the expansion, or should a Canadian management team be developed? A systematic approach to assessing the options was needed.

The equity analyst for a large investment bank is in the process of evaluating a potential takeover of Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s largest drugstore retailer, by Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada’s largest grocery retailer. Rumours of the takeover have been circulating for some time, and the analyst wants to provide her buy-side clients with both her comments on the proposed transaction and her assessment of a reasonable offering price.

Global consumption of petroleum products stood at just more than 90 million barrels per day by the end of 2013, and was expected to increase to 91 million or more by the end of 2014. Petroleum companies were constantly exploring the planet for new oil reserves to meet this voracious demand for fossil fuels. Because three-quarters of the earth was water, it was evident that these oil reserves were largely underwater; however, until the end of 2013, very few players had explored this opportunity. Although reaching deep-water drilling sites posed various challenges — environmental, political, technological, etc. — offshore exploration was the future of the oil and gas industry.<br><br>Because of its very successful campaigns, Cairn India was ideally positioned for offshore exploration. Capturing and capitalizing on the opportunity of offshore exploration would give it an edge, but the question remained: Would it be better to gain the prime mover advantage or wait for other players to start the process so that it could learn from others’ mistakes and reap benefits later?

An equity research analyst is preparing to attend a road show presentation by WH Group Limited, the world’s largest pork company headquartered in Hong Kong, concerning its upcoming initial public offering. She is reviewing the preliminary prospectus as well as other publicly available background information on the company and its two core subsidiaries, Shuanghui International Holdings Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc., whose recent acquisition was the largest by a Chinese company of a U.S. firm. She wants to assess the prospects for the company as a whole and arrive at her own independent valuation to support a buy or no buy recommendation for her fund. Her analysis includes assessments of economic conditions and the pork industry in the United States and China and the perceived strengths and weaknesses of WH Group, including the issue of large bonuses to corporate executives and the benefits or risks of the recent acquisition.

Religion in the workplace is of growing interest as more individuals desire to express their spirituality and incorporate their whole selves there. Expression can take a variety of forms as employees and employers attempt to integrate their personal beliefs into their daily work.<br><br>This case considers two organizational sides of integrating faith into the workplace: the employee and employer perspectives. The first part of the case takes the perspective of the owner of Hobby Lobby, a privately held arts and crafts company whose founder has always endeavoured to incorporate his Christian beliefs within business practices. The company must react to changes imposed by the Affordable Care Act of 2010 that it perceives as contrary to its values. The second part of the case considers religious discrimination experienced by an employee of AutoZone, a distributor and retailer of automobile parts. What is the place of religion in the workplace? How important is it for organizations to adapt to various forms of religious expression?

A controlling shareholder of the NYSE-listed Chinese online gaming company Shanda Games has offered a buyout at USD6.90 per American Depository Share (ADS); each ADS consists of two ordinary shares. The offer provides a premium of 22 per cent to the stock’s Friday close. Throughout the previous year, Shanda Games’ ADS had typically traded in the range of USD2.74 to 6.45.<br><br>As Shanda Games’ independent directors attempt to evaluate the offer, they wonder: Should the shareholders accept it as it is? Should they ask for a higher price? Or should they look for the alternatives?

The operator of a dairy farm in Tennessee has begun renting goats for landscaping (see Goats: The Green Alternative (A) 9B11B018). The business proved successful so he considered expanding the operation (see Goats: The Green Alternative (B) 9B11B025). Now, he consults with a statistician to learn how to incorporate uncertainty into the decision about expanding. The case incorporates three types of uncertainty into a spreadsheet analysis of the expansion decision and then uses Monte Carlo analysis to produce an array of outcomes from the capital budgeting process.

Airtel mCommerce Services Limited was waiting for news from the Reserve Bank of India related to mobile banking regulations, as it was eager to unleash the massive potential and untapped opportunity in India regarding mobile commerce. Its service, Airtel Money, was struggling in India, but it had experienced a huge success in Africa. Though it had some initial success in India, it still had a long way to go to capture the Indian mobile market.

Vietnam has made impressive economic gains over a period of three decades, following the Doi Moi reforms of 1986. Before reform, the country’s socialist economy had been unable to displace the poverty that had plagued the country in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. After reform, Vietnam has experienced many years of sustained growth, as evidenced by its advances on several economic performance rankings. By 2014, Vietnam's rankings compared favourably with those of many of its Asian neighbours. A major feature of the country’s strategy for economic development was its emphasis on information and computing technologies. Students will analyze Vietnam's past successes to extract lessons that can lead to additional future success.

On October 9, 2013, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., a large U.S. retailer of men's tailored and casual clothing, footwear and accessories, made a hostile offer to buy its larger rival Men’s Wearhouse. The latter made a counter-offer on January 6, 2014 in what is known as a Pac-man defence — the prey turned predator. Jos. A. Bank responded by adopting a poison pill, announcing the planned acquisition of Eddie Bauer, an outdoor apparel retailer. What started out as a simple offer had turned into a contest with multiple counter-offers and the deployment of several takeover defences. How should Eminence Capital, a New York-based hedge fund and the largest shareholder in both firms, react? How should each firm respond to the latest offer on their respective tables?

It took 19 years to build Knight Capital Americas LLC into the largest market maker on the New York Stock Exchange, but on August 1, 2012, it took only 45 minutes for the firm to be wiped out by an information technology (IT) problem: a change in the company's software caused it to lose more than $450 million dollars in less than an hour. Although it was ultimately saved from bankruptcy when it was acquired two days later, the terms of acquisition were very unfavourable to the company’s shareholders. How did this happen? Could it have been prevented? What should the staff, the chief executive officer, other managers and the board of directors have done differently? What lessons does this story hold for how firms should be managed and governed? And what does it say about our ability to manage risk in large modern corporations operating in increasingly fast-moving and complex global markets?

An activist shareholder who invested a significant amount in Apple’s stock proposed a share repurchase program. If this proposal were approved at the annual shareholder’s meeting, Apple would be in a position to buy back a significant number of its shares on the stock market, which would drive up the stock price. However, the executives and board of directors opposed the proposal and recommended that the shareholders vote against it. Apple’s subsequent annual meeting of shareholders was scheduled to be held on Friday, February 28, 2014. Shareholders could either vote for the proposal or follow the recommendation of Apple’s board.

Globally acclaimed singer, actor, author and Grammy Award winner Ricky Martin “decided [on March 29, 2010] to put an end to the hell that was going on inside [his] mind” by using Twitter to openly declare his homosexuality. Issues posed by the revelation included: What options were available to Martin’s management before and after the revelation in order to effectively deal with situations that could have jeopardized Martin’s career and future projects? Should those close to Martin have planned for a potential brand repositioning strategy? If so, how should they have handled it?

In 2014, IMAX is a Canadian-based company synonymous with large-format, high-quality cinematic experiences. Following four decades of innovation, the bulk of its revenue now comes from providing technology to mainstream movie studios and multiplex exhibitors. IMAX has more than 900 cinema screens in 58 countries, with nearly half of them located in North America. Its chief executive officer believes that the route to becoming a billion-dollar company involves adding 1,100 screens in growth markets outside of North America. If about 400 of the new worldwide screens are designated for Brazil, Russia, China and India—the BRIC economies—how should IMAX allocate these new screens by country and by city?

In 2012, an Indian multinational, Bharat Forge Ltd. (BFL) achieved world-leader status in forgings by a series of acquisitions in Europe and the United States. The need to participate in growth markets and to be close to global auto majors led BFL to a joint venture with the China-based FAW Corporation. However, while moving towards growth and a strategy for international scope expansion, shifts in the environment took BFL on a path towards a more de-risked portfolio. Following the divestment of its holding in the United States, BFL needed to reexamine the continuance of its stake in the joint venture.

As a newcomer in the automobile industry, Tesla Motors had distinguished itself by redefining automobiles and rewriting some of the rules of the automobile industry. Ten years after its founding, it had begun to make inroads into China — a totally different market from Europe and the United States — and commenced its globalization efforts. China had set “new energy” as its major strategy for sustainable development and national security. Which path should Tesla follow to make China its second-largest market? How can Tesla’s director for China overcome the company’s strategic challenges in innovating in the Chinese market?

In 2012, Abu Dhabi National Hotels had been struggling and the performance of the company had significantly declined, especially that of its main hotel business. Net profit had been decreasing since 2009 and, with this shrinking profitability, shareholders were losing confidence in the company. The share price of the company had also deteriorated and was expected to decline further. With the drop in net profit year after year, investors were very concerned about the company’s performance and the direction of its future growth. The company had five business segments — hotels, retail services, catering, transportation and holding — and a deep analysis of the company’s performance areas and plan to improve these were needed.

In January 2012, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) Corporation’s chief executive officer resigned after two major breakdowns on the North-South Line in December 2011. SMRT was a public transport operator in Singapore, with a transportation network that comprised buses, trains and taxis. The two breakdowns were arguably the largest public transportation incidents in Singapore’s history, prompting public outrage and heavy criticism of the CEO’s qualifications and personal style. However, it was uncertain whether she, as CEO, bore primary responsibility for the train breakdowns. To what extent did her gender and unconventional style affect the public’s perception of her effectiveness as a leader? How much did the media influence the public’s perception? Could the train breakdowns have been averted if a CEO with an engineering background or industry-specific experience had been in charge?

An executive has just joined adult entertainment producer Private Media Group Inc. (PMG) as a strategy consultant. Despite being a highly controversial industry, adult entertainment has been credited with furthering the widespread adoption of major technologies such as the VCR, Internet and digital transmissions over hand-held devices.<br><br>In preparing for his first meeting with PMG’s president, the executive wonders if he should recommend pursuing larger productions with higher costs and higher sales versus the current mixture of large productions ($100,000 or more in production costs), medium productions ($75,000) and small productions ($5,000). He also believes there is an opportunity to increase PMG’s brand awareness through licensing. Finally, the executive knows that the adult entertainment industry is quick to adopt new technologies so he wants to prepare PMG for the inevitable demise of DVDs. See the supplement to this case, 9B15M026.