“This wasn’t a hedge, this was an outright bet,” said David Webb, a wellknown corporate governance activist in Hong Kong.2 CP’s transactions involved substantial risks that far exceeded its actual hedging needs. The mining project required only an initial capital expenditure of A$1.6 billion, yet it entered into contracts for over A$9 billion.3 90 per cent of these hedging contracts were entered into when the Australian Dollar hit a high of 87 cents against the USD in October 2008. Hence, when the Australian dollar fell by 20 percent to 70 cents against the USD, a loss of HK$15.5 billion was expected