8.7 Summary
This chapter provides the rationale for hedging exposures to currency risk based on case flow considerations. The perfect market assumptions were introduced as a way of identifying conditions under which hedging policy matters. Perfect financial markets possess the following characteristics.
• Frictionless markets
• Equal access to market prices
• Equal access to costless information
• Rational investors
If hedging policy (indeed, any financial policy) is to have value, then one or more of these perfect market assumptions cannot hold. This leads to the following rule.
If corporate hedging policy is to increase firm value, then it must increase
the firm's expected future cash flows or decrease the discount rate
in a way that cannot be replicated by individual investors.
The importance of the MNC' s risk management policy depends on the presence of market imperfections. We examined the consequences of three imperfections for the firm's hedging policies.
• Convex tax schedules arising from tax- loss carryforwards or progressive tax schedules
• Costs of direct and indirect financial distress
• Agency costs from conflicts of interest between managers and other stakeholders
Hedging can create value for shareholders - indeed, for all stakeholders - by reducing the expected costs of financial distress, agency costs, or expected taxes.