5:Buy Dollars Now
The fifth alternative is a money market hedge for an account payable: Obtain the $500 million now and hold those funds in an interest-bearing account or asset until payment was due. Although this would eliminate the currency exposure, it required that Lufthansa have all the capital in hand now. The purchase if the Boeing jets had been made in conjunction with the ongoing financing plans of Lufthansa, and these did not call for the capital to be available until January 1986. An added concern (and what ultimately eliminated this alternative from consideration) was that Lufthansa, and currencies of denomination of the items it could carry on its balance sheet.