the whole  9 pages case is in additional materials
Expectations
The paper should address the following:
1.    Investment Strategy/ Functional – review the company’s investment in a large number of business areas. Comment on the advantages/disadvantages especially from a financial perspective.
2.    Investment Strategy/Regional – review the company’s involvement in a number of very different geographic regions. Advantages/disadvantages?
3.    Base Currency – what are the special issues involved for a company with a small currency basis (Swedish krona) in a U.S. dollar denominated world, especially given its multi-currency involvement?
4.    Financial Management – review the potential issues involving funding requirements and revenue streams from very different businesses – such as the fixed investments in the meat business in South America and the dairy business in China vs. the trading businesses in Southeast Asia and others.
5.    Business Distribution – evaluate the financial results in 1995-96 (Exhibit 2). Do you agree with the company’s conclusions on Core and FTC Businesses?
6.    Financial Results – evaluate 1997 results and compare to 1995-96. Comment on the firm’s financial status and trends prior to the strains of the Asia Currency Crisis. How was the company positioned financially for the forthcoming difficulties?
7.    Financing – focus on the company’s extensive involvement in local currency exposures (non-US $). What were the financial implications of the generation of revenues in many Asian currencies? What were the implications of debt in those currencies?
8.    Financing – evaluate the decision to rely on U.S. $ debt. Comment on the tradeoffs between lower financing costs on foreign exchange exposure.
9.    Asia Crisis – financial management is especially important in periods of economic difficulty. The company’s exposure in many markets made it sensitive to more crisis situations. Examine the negative impacts of the Asian crisis on the company’s financial position from the viewpoints of investment, operational and translation perspectives. Comment on the company’s reaction to these negative impacts.
10.    New Strategic Approaches – viewing the company’s many issues suggest the optimum strategies for Investment, Debt Management and for Foreign Currency Management (reflecting the dilemmas confronting the CFO at the end of the case).
Comment on the potential of these strategies for financial management by the many subsidiaries.
11. Evaluation – grade the company’s performance in managing its financial issues in the period under review.

Category: Essays