Exam 19: Multinational

Suppose a foreign investor who holds tax-exempt Eurobonds paying 9% is considering investing in an equivalent-risk domestic bond in a country with a 28% withholding tax on interest paid to foreigners. If 9% after-tax is the investor's required return, what before-tax rate would the domestic bond need to pay to provide the required after-tax return?

Blenman Corporation, based in the United States, arranged a 2-year, $1,000,000 loan to fund a project in Mexico. The loan is denominated in Mexican pesos, carries a 10.0% nominal rate, and requires equal semiannual payments. The exchange rate at the time of the loan was 5.75 pesos per dollar, but it dropped to 5.10 pesos per dollar before the first payment came due. The loan was not hedged in the foreign exchange market. Thus, Blenman must convert U.S. funds to Mexican pesos to make its payments. If the exchange rate remains at 5.10 pesos per dollar through the end of the loan period, what effective annual interest rate will Blenman end up paying on the loan?

Legal and economic differences among countries, although important, do NOT pose significant problems for most multinational corporations when they coordinate and control worldwide operations and subsidiaries.

One year ago, a U.S. investor converted dollars to yen and purchased 100 shares of stock in a Japanese company at a price of 3,150 yen per share. The stock's total purchase cost was 315,000 yen. At the time of purchase, in the currency market 1 yen equaled $0.00952. Today, the stock is selling at a price of 3,465 yen per share, and in the currency market $1 equals 130 yen. The stock does not pay a dividend. If the investor were to sell the stock today and convert the proceeds back to dollars, what would be his realized return on his initial dollar investment from holding the stock?

Today in the spot market $1 = 1.82 Swiss francs and $1 = 130 Japanese yen. In the 90-day forward market, $1 = 1.84 Swiss francs and $1 = 127 Japanese yen. Assume that interest rate parity holds worldwide. Which of the following statements is most CORRECT?

A box of candy costs 28.80 Swiss francs in Switzerland and $20 in the United States. Assuming that purchasing power parity (PPP) holds, how many Swiss francs are required to purchase one U.S. dollar?

Exchange rate risk is the risk that the cash flows from a foreign project, when converted to the parent company's currency, will be worth less than was originally projected because of exchange rate changes.

Suppose DeGraw Corporation, a U.S. exporter, sold a solar heating station to a Japanese customer at a price of 143.5 million yen, when the exchange rate was 140 yen per dollar. In order to close the sale, DeGraw agreed to make the bill payable in yen, thus agreeing to take some exchange rate risk for the transaction. The terms were net 6 months. If the yen fell against the dollar such that one dollar would buy 154.4 yen when the invoice was paid, what dollar amount would DeGraw actually receive after it exchanged yen for U.S. dollars?

Because political risk is seldom negotiable, it cannot be explicitly addressed in multinational corporate financial analysis.

Suppose 90-day investments in Britain have a 6% annualized return and a 1.5% quarterly (90-day) return. In the U.S., 90-day investments of similar risk have a 4% annualized return and a 1% quarterly (90-day) return. In the 90-day forward market, 1 British pound equals $1.65. If interest rate parity holds, what is the spot exchange rate ($/£)?