1. Measuring Exposure To Exchange Rate Fluctuations10
Chapter
Measuring Exposure To Exchange Rate Fluctuations
See c10.xls for spreadsheets to accompany this chapter.
South-Western/Thomson Learning © 2003

2. Chapter Objectives
To discuss the relevance of an MNC’s exposure to exchange rate risk;
To explain how transaction exposure can be measured;
To explain how economic exposure can be measured; and
To explain how translation exposure can be measured.
The Value at Risk (VaR) approach

3. Is Exchange Rate Risk Relevant?
Purchasing Power Parity Argument
Exchange rate movements will be matched by price movements.
PPP does not necessarily hold.
The Investor Hedge Argument
MNC shareholders can hedge against exchange rate fluctuations on their own.
The investors may not have complete information on corporate exposure. They may not have the capabilities to correctly insulate their individual exposure too.

4. Is Exchange Rate Risk Relevant?
Currency Diversification Argument
An MNC that is well diversified should not be affected by exchange rate movements because of offsetting effects.
This is a naive presumption.
Stakeholder Diversification Argument
Well diversified stakeholders will be somewhat insulated against losses experienced by an MNC due to exchange rate risk.
MNCs may be affected in the same way because of exchange rate risk.

5. Is Exchange Rate Risk Relevant?

6. Types of Exposure

7. Transaction Exposure

8. Transaction Exposure
The degree to which the value of future cash transactions can be affected by exchange rate fluctuations is referred to as transaction exposure.
To measure transaction exposure:
project the net amount of inflows or outflows in each foreign currency, and
determine the overall risk of exposure to those currencies.

9. Miami Company

10. Measuring the Potential Impact
An MNC’s exposure can be measured by considering the proportion of each currency together with the currency’s variability and the correlations among the movements of the currencies.
For a two-currency portfolio,

11. Standard Deviations of Exchange Rate Movements
Transaction Exposure
Standard Deviations of Exchange Rate Movements
Based on Monthly Data
Currency
British pound
Canadian dollar
Indian rupee
Japanese yen
New Zealand dollar
Swedish krona
Swiss franc
Singapore dollar

12. Transaction Exposure
The correlations among currency movements can be measured by their correlation coefficients, which indicate the degree to which two currencies move in relation to each other.
coefficient
perfect positive correlation 1.00
no correlation 0.00
perfect negative correlation -1.00

13. Correlations Among Exchange Rate Movements
British
Pound
Canadian
Dollar
Euro
Japanese
Yen
Swedish
Krona
1.00
.35
.91
.71
.48
.83
.12
.57
.67
.92
.64

14. Transaction Exposure
The point in considering correlations is to detect positions that could somewhat offset each other.
For example, if currencies X and Y are highly correlated, the exposures of a net X inflow and a net Y outflow will offset each other to a certain degree.
Note that the correlations among currencies may change over time.

15. Impact of Cash Flow and Correlation Conditions on an MNC’s Exposure
+Q +Q Highly positive High
MNC’s Exposure
Expected Net Cash Flow
Currency x
Currency y
Correlation between Currencies x and y
+Q +Q Slightly positive Moderate
+Q +Q Negative Low
+Q – Q Highly positive Low
+Q – Q Slightly positive Moderate
+Q – Q Negative High

16. Movements of Major Currencies against the Dollar

17. Transaction Exposure
A related method, the value-at-risk (VAR) method, incorporates currency volatility and correlations to determine the potential maximum loss over a given time period
Historical data is used to determine the potential decline in a particular currency. This decline is then applied to the net cash flows in that currency.

18. Value at Risk A risk manager has to address three issues
What is the risk and what is the exposure to the underlying risk factors?
How much could prices (or exchange rates) change?
What is the position sensitivity to changes in the risk factor?
The answers to these questions will allow the risk manager to answer the question – how much could I lose?

19. Value at Risk
We cannot with any certainty predict what a given exchange rate may be in a weeks` time, but we can make predictions about the range of future movements
We can think of VaR as the maximum expected loss over a given target time horizon and target confidence limit

20. Value at Risk

21. Value at Risk
The basic approach to determining the value at risk involves four elements:
The amount of exposure (A)
The volatility (σ) of the asset position
A confidence limit α in terms of the number of standard deviations, usually 1 – 2 standard deviations on a normal distribution
A time horizon over which decisions can be made about the position (T). If T is less than a year, the volatility is adjusted by square root of T

22. Value at Risk
Given the above, the value at risk is computed as:

23. VaR – textbook example
Celia Company will receive Mexican pesos (MXP) tomorrow
Current spot rate = $0.09/MXP
Daily standard deviation of the MXP: 1.2 %
Alpha: 1.65 standard deviations (95 %)

24. Value at Risk

25. Value at Risk What is the portfolio risk?
We need the correlation coefficient between the two assets:

26. Value at Risk - portfolio

27. VaR – textbook example

28. Economic Exposure
Economic exposure refers to the degree to which a firm’s present value of future cash flows can be influenced by exchange rate fluctuations.
Cash flows that do not require conversion of currencies do not reflect transaction exposure. Yet, these cash flows may also be influenced significantly by exchange rate movements.

29. Endaka

30. Economic Exposure to Exchange Rate Fluctuations
Transactions that Influence the Firm’s Cash Inflows
Local Currency Appreciates
Local Currency Depreciates
Local sales (relative to foreign Decrease Increase
competition in local markets)
Firm’s exports denominated Decrease Increase
in local currency 
Firm’s exports denominated Decrease Increase
in foreign currency
Interest received from foreign Decrease Increase
investments 
Firm’s imported supplies No change No change
denominated in local currency
Transactions that Influence the Firm’s Cash Inflows
Firm’s imported supplies Decrease Increase
denominated in foreign currency 
Interest owed on foreign funds Decrease Increase
borrowed 
Transactions that reflect transaction exposure

31. Economic Exposure
Even purely domestic firms may be affected by economic exposure if there is foreign competition within the local markets.
MNCs are likely to be much more exposed to exchange rate fluctuations. The impact varies across MNCs according to their individual operating characteristics and net currency positions.

32. Economic Exposure
One measure of economic exposure involves classifying the firm’s cash flows into income statement items, and then reviewing how the earnings forecast in the income statement changes in response to alternative exchange rate scenarios.
In general, firms with more foreign costs than revenues will be unfavorably affected by stronger foreign currencies.

33. Madison Inc US-based MNC selling in Canada and the US
US sales in US dollars, Canadian sales in C$
Possible exchange rate scenarios
C$ = US$0.75
C$ = US$0.80
C$ = US$0.85

34. Madison Inc

35. Madison Inc

36. Madison Inc

37. Madison Inc

38. Economic Exposure
Another method of assessing a firm’s economic exposure involves applying regression analysis to historical cash flow and exchange rate data.

39. Economic Exposure PCFt = a0 + a1et + t
PCFt = % change in inflation-adjusted cash flows measured in the firm’s home currency over period t
et = % change in the currency exchange rate over period t
t = random error term
a0 = intercept
a1 = slope coefficient

40. Economic Exposure
The regression model may be revised to handle multiple currencies by including them as additional independent variables, or by using a currency index (composite).
By changing the dependent variable, the impact of exchange rates on the firm’s value (as measured by its stock price), earnings, exports, sales, etc. may also be assessed.

41. Translation Exposure
The exposure of the MNC’s consolidated financial statements to exchange rate fluctuations is known as translation exposure.
In particular, subsidiary earnings translated into the reporting currency on the consolidated income statement are subject to changing exchange rates.

42. Translation loss

43. Translation Exposure
Cash Flow Perspective - Translating financial statements for consolidated reporting purposes does not by itself affect an MNC’s cash flows.
However, a weak foreign currency today may result in a forecast of a weak exchange rate at the time subsidiary earnings are actually remitted.
Stock Price Perspective - Since an MNC’s translation exposure affects its consolidated earnings and many investors tend to use earnings when valuing firms, the MNC’s valuation may be affected.

44. Translation Exposure
In general, translation exposure is relevant because
some MNC subsidiaries may want to remit their earnings to their parents now,
the prevailing exchange rates may be used to forecast the expected cash flows that will result from future remittances, and
consolidated earnings are used by many investors to value MNCs.

45. Translation Exposure
An MNC’s degree of translation exposure is dependent on:
the proportion of its business conducted by its foreign subsidiaries,
the locations of its foreign subsidiaries, and
the accounting method that it uses.

46. Impact of Exchange Rate Exposure on an MNC’s Value
E (CFj,t ) = expected cash flows in currency j to be received by the U.S. parent at the end of period t
E (ERj,t ) = expected exchange rate at which currency j can be converted to dollars at the end of period t
k = weighted average cost of capital of the parent
Transaction Exposure
Economic Exposure