At the very least, Culp and Miller suggest, MG’s management could have
bought options to hedge its oil exposure while seeking a longer-term solution to
its funding problems, as suggested by MGRM’s management. As a longer-term
solution, they argue that the firm could have spun off the combined marketing
and hedging program into a separate subsidiary, which could have been sold
to another firm. This argument is supported by Edwards (1995), who reports
that at least one major U.S. bank had offered to provide secured financing to
MGRM based on a plan to securitize its forward delivery contracts.
Besides taking issue with the actions of MG’s board of supervisors, Culp
and Hanke (1994) fault NYMEX for the actions the exchange took against
MGRM. They argue that these actions needlessly exacerbated MGRM’s temporary
cash flow problems and thereby helped to precipitate a funding crisis
for the firm.