Importance of Cash Flow Hedging in Projects from Corporate Sustainability

Transcription

1 Importance of Cash Flow Hedging in Projects from Corporate Sustainability 17 Importance of Cash Flow Hedging in Projects from Corporate Sustainability Hiren Maniar* Abstract : A cash flow hedge protects from the variability of cash flow of the hedged item, variables such as a particular risk associated with an asset or liability (such as interest payments on a variable rate debt) or the effects of profit or loss, by offsetting such variability with the cash flow of the hedging instrument. This paper studies the scenario of unrealized cash flow hedge gains/losses for future profitability and project returns, which ultimately decides in a longer run corporate sustainability of any project driven company. An unrealized gain on a cash flow hedge suggests that the price of the underlying hedged item (i.e. commodity price, foreign currency exchange rate or interest rate) moved in a direction that negatively affects the project firm. Based on this inverse relation, it is found that unrealized cash flow hedge gains/losses are negatively associated with future gross margin. This association is weaker for project firms that have the ability to pass input price changes through to customers. Finally, it has been observed that project companies do not immediately price the information conveyed by cash flow hedges. Instead, project companies appear surprised by future realizations of gross margin, consistent with the view that a lack of transparent disclosure on future hedged transactions leads to a delay in pricing. Keywords : Cash flow, Hedging, Cash, Corporate Sustainability, Credit Line, Cash Flow Risk, Project Companies JEL Classification : G30; G31; G32 INTRODUCTAION A cash hedge is a type of investment strategy set up to protect an individual against the risk of variable cash flow of a specific hedged item. Such a risk may be caused by particular assets or liabilities that generate revenue differently than expected, and are possibly reducing expected profits or increasing losses. For example, a cash flow hedge could protect against increases in the repayment installments of a variable rate loan, increases in the exchange rate of a foreign currency in which the individual expects to make a future transaction, or increases in the prices of planned inventory purchases. This financial strategy uses derivative instruments such as call options or put options to help limit the individual's exposure to such risks. Specific information, such as the strategy and risk of the original hedge, must be documented before a cash flow hedge can be properly established; in most cases, a financial advisor can help investors create financial protection for hedged items. A cash-flow hedge protects from the variability of cash flow of the hedged item, variables such as a particular risk associated with an asset or liability (such as interest payments on a variable rate debt) or the effects of profit or loss, by offsetting such *Corporate Trainer - Finance, L & T Institute of Project Management, Vadodara , Gujarat, India. . : hmaniar@lntipm.org

2 18 NICMAR-Journal of Construction Management, Vol. XXVII, No. 2&3, April-June & July-Sept variability with the cash flow of the hedging instrument. In short cash flow hedge is a hedge of an upcoming, forecasted event. To qualify for cash flow hedge treatment, a key requirement is that exposure involves the risk of an uncertain (i.e., variable) cash flow. A cash flow hedge is a hedge of the exposure to the variability of cash flow that 1. Is attributable to a particular risk associated with a recognized asset or liability, such as all or some future interest payments on variable rate debt or a highly probable forecast transaction and 2. Could affect profit or loss A cash flow hedge is a hedging relationship where the variability of the hedged item's cash flows is offset by the cash flows of the hedging instrument. Key aspects are: Hedged item may be a forecasted transaction with no contracted future price (i.e., not a firm commit.) Effective portion of derivative's gain or loss reported in firms' financial statements Earnings recognition matches hedged transaction Ineffective gain or loss recorded in earnings The uncertainty of cash flows and the risk of adverse cash flow shocks are central concerns in Projects, and are taken seriously by both project managers and project companies. Theory suggests that corporate risk management in projects can effectively mitigate cash flow risks. Yet, the empirical literature offers no conclusive evidence on the overall value of risk management and cash flow hedging. Movements in external factors such as exchange rates, interest rates and commodity prices can disrupt a project's internally generated cash flows. Hence for good project cash flow hedging, one needs to forecast cash flow in highly accurate manner. Judging by industry surveys, cash flow forecasting is a recurring priority and pain point for corporate treasurers. What is it that makes this issue a constant 'top of mind' topic for treasurers? So much is written and said about the topic of cash flow forecasting and hedging that it can get confusing. Many companies thought that it is the single most important task a cash manager does. But this is not the case. The consequences of getting cash forecasting wrong are all too clear. The project can lose money when project borrows more than what is actually needed or invest money project managers thought they had but don't, due to poor forecasting. And therein lies the problem and the reason that some treasurers don't bother forecasting at all. So it seems there are a few issues to focus on here: Getting the Project companies to forecast cash flow regularly. Getting the Project companies to forecast cash flow accurately. Having the ability to control how forecasting works. A logical step by step approach may be what is needed. Treasury, in theory, should have knowledge of at least some of the line items that go to make up a good forecast. Following point should be considered for effective forecasting of cash flow. Cash flows generated from financial transactions (e.g. foreign exchange (FX), debt and investment). Possible mergers and acquisitions (M&A) or divestures. Treasury related transfers (e.g. tax and cash pooling). Human resource transfers (e.g. tax and payroll). Bank fees. Financial institution debt and credit line issuance costs and fees. Accounts payable (A/P) accounts receivable (A/R) and forecast sales.

3 Importance of Cash Flow Hedging in Projects from Corporate Sustainability 19 Summary cash flows generated from quantitative modeling. Technology can play a key role in the success or otherwise of cash flow forecasting from a number of perspectives including the gathering of cash forecast data and the analysis of the data. Treasuries who are successful in forecasting agree on one thing that project managers have to make it easy for the suppliers (subsidiaries or business units) of the forecast to provide the forecast. But this is only one aspect of the issue. Project managers also need to compare the forecast with the actual for accuracy. It is this area that some project companies find most difficult and possibly why they give up or don't bother in the first place. If group treasury does not have the power to improve the accuracy then it can be a meaningless task. RELEVANCE OF CASH FLOW HEDGING IN PROJECTS FROM CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY POINT OF VIEW What are the financial consequences and value implications of corporate hedging? Clearly, the uncertainty of cash flows and the risk of adverse cash flow shocks are central concerns in corporate finance, shareholders and managers take them seriously. In today's economic turmoil environment, corporate sustainability for companies is a difficult task due to volatility in commodity, equity, interest rate, inflation and foreign exchange markets. As per corporate sustainability practices, project companies are using derivative instruments as hedging tools to manage its balance sheet against impending risk due to volatility in commodity, foreign exchange, interest rate and credit flows. Project companies enter into fair value hedges, cash flow hedges and hedges of net investments in foreign operations pertaining to various domestic as well as international projects. This really indicates in the economic performance of various projects of project companies in terms of Economic Value Generation (Revenue generated by projects for company) and EBDITA (Gross Profit Margin of projects for the company). However, same also decides the corporate sustainability of project companies in managing cash flow hedging for commodity, foreign exchange, interest rate and credit flows. The majority of the project companies do cash flow hedges related to exposure to variability in project's future payments and receipts on forecast transactions and on recognised financial assets and financial liabilities of projects. The project company hedges its international project net investments in foreign operations with currency borrowings and forward foreign exchange contracts. It is found that cash flow hedging reduces the firm's precautionary demand for cash and allows it to rely relatively more on bank for lines of credit for liquidity provision. Furthermore, firm is able to identify a significant positive value effect of cash flow hedging as a result of facilitating a more cost efficient liquidity policy. Same is a driving factor in today's economic turmoil era, where many cash strapped companies are facing challenges for managing of their cash flow. In the last couple of years (based on result analysis of several project companies in India), Indian project companies incurred a huge foreign exchange loss in running their project business; some envisaged the need of effective cash flow hedging of foreign exchange and other financial resources for corporate sustainability of project companies. This research article will give an idea about why cash flow hedging is required for the projects and how cash flow hedging can play an important role in terms of corporate sustainability for any project driven organisation. ROLE OF CASH FLOW HEDGING IN PROJECTS The project cash flow hedge protects an individual from the risks of particular assets or liabilities generating cash flows different from those he or

4 20 NICMAR-Journal of Construction Management, Vol. XXVII, No. 2&3, April-June & July-Sept she expected, possibly reducing expected profits or increasing losses. There are various types of risk a project faces during its life cycle like currency risk, commodity risk, price risk, etc. Currency risks include those associated with a future transaction in a foreign currency or a debt denominated in a foreign currency. Price risks refer to the possibility of the purchase price of non-financial goods increasing or the sale price of non-financial goods decreasing. It can also protect against increases in the repayment installments of a variable rate loan, increases in the exchange rate of a foreign currency in which the individual expects to make a future transaction or increases in the prices of inventory to purchase. A cash flow hedge uses derivative instruments such as call options or put options to limit the individual's exposure to such risks. Cash flow effects of financial instruments for projects could be due to price changes, benchmark interest rate changes, changes in the credit spread between the interest rate of the hedged item and the benchmark interest rate, and defaults or changes in creditworthiness. In a cash flow hedge, derivatives are used to offset the variability in cash flows from a forecasted transaction for which there is currently no legal commitment and which is too uncertain to be documented. Management anticipates that a transaction is likely to occur in the future and hedges the associated price risk by taking a position in the derivatives market. The price of the derivative fluctuates during the period interim to taking the derivative position and its settlement. The gains or losses arising from price fluctuations are reported in the earnings statement (or in "other comprehensive income"). However, the forecasted transaction, that is the basis for the hedge, is not recognized until its realization in the future - hence, during the interim period, there is no recognition of an offset to the reported gains or losses on derivatives. This implies that outsiders assessing the firm's financial condition are left to make their own judgments regarding the extent to which the reported gains or losses will reverse in the future. If the hedged item is denominated in a foreign currency, an entity may designate any of the following types of hedges of foreign currency exposure: (a) (b) (c) A fair value hedge of an unrecognized firm commitment or a recognized asset or liability (including an available-for-sale security) A cash flow hedge of any of the following: 1. A forecasted transaction 2. An unrecognized firm commitment 3. The forecasted functional currency equivalent cash flows associated with a recognized asset or liability 4. A forecasted intra-entity transaction A hedge of a net investment in a foreign operation LITERATURE REVIEW There is a large literature which has studied cash flow hedging in terms corporate of risk management. Stulz (1984), Smith and Stulz (1985), Stulz (1990), Bessembinder (1991), and Froot et. al (1993) find that hedging increases firm value in the presence of market imperfections such as costs of external financing and a progressive tax rate schedule. Given these frictions, the optimal hedging strategies are analyzed. Such studies of optimal hedging strategies posit that the firm's cash flows are a deterministic function of some common factors and the fluctuations in cash flow come solely from the fluctuations of the factors. In our framework, a firm's cash flow is uncertain conditional on the common factor and it depends on whether or not the firm has won the auction. The relationship between hedging and project market competition has been analyzed by Adam, Dasgupta and Titman (2005). They characterize Cournot equilibrium in which project firms may

5 Importance of Cash Flow Hedging in Projects from Corporate Sustainability 21 hedge input costs. They find that hedging strategy is jointly determined in equilibrium with the project market competition and that there can be asymmetric equilibrium. Mello and Ruckes (2005) also consider firms with financial constraints who compete in project markets. They find that even though reducing cash flow volatility may be desirable, project firms may choose not to hedge for competitive reasons. In this research, we find the reverse, that firms in active competition will always hedge and ex post those who lose the competition have too much exposure to the common factor. Loss (2002) demonstrates that a firm in competition chooses to hedge strategically, in particular, hedging is valuable if investments are strategic substitute (as opposed to strategic complements). Conceptually, this research differs from these papers in one important way. This research considers competition in indivisible projects. This means that only one firm will win." The other firms will necessarily lose," which is the source of business risk. A literature has considered the interaction between hedging and bidding. Eaker and Grant (1985) model a project firm with an exogenous probability of winning a project whose payoff is exposed to foreign exchange rate risk. They study the optimal exposure to a forward contract on the exchange rate. In a similar framework, Lien and Wong (2004) incorporate a single bidder facing an exogenous function that links bids to winning probabilities. We extend this literature, by rendering the bids and hedging endogenous. Therefore, we can consider the interaction between financial markets on project firms bidding behavior. This paper also contributes to the auction literature through the observation that, through financial markets, agents may affect their valuations. The incentive to hedge in this model arises because firms face a convex cost of capital. Thus, the model resembles auction models with risk averse bidders. Eso and White (2003) examine the effect of idiosyncratic risk on risk averse bidders. They find that idiosyncratic risk can increase agents' expected utility. Rhodes-Kropf and Viswanathan (2005) also consider bidders who are financially constrained. In their framework, bidders with differing cash positions raise money which may be conditional on the ex post value of the firm. They show that capital markets may render the auction inefficient. By contrast to their work, as we are interested in how competition affects the investment decisions of firms, was assume that the cost of accessing the financial market either through hedging or raising extra capital does not depend on the bid or private information of the bidders. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Process of cash flow hedging in projects followed by the research model to calculate Net Currency Project Cash Flow for Hedging, and we also derive Sensitivity Analysis for Project Cash Flow Hedging. In the last section of how to hedge project cash flow, we assessed the impact of changed debt currency on Project Cash Flow. PROCESS OF CASH FLOW HEDGING IN PROJECTS The value of the project has a private value component and a common value component. Both are random, and therefore winning generates uncertain internal capital. As each project firm faces financial constraints, and hence invests internal capital in an ongoing growth opportunity, all firms behave as if they are risk averse in the auction stage. They thus have an incentive to hedge cash flow risk. The random common value component of the project is correlated with financial instruments which they can use to hedge it. However, by assumption, contracts are not written on who wins the auction, and markets are necessarily incomplete so hedging with financial instruments cannot eliminate all cash flow uncertainty. Thus, while all firms may find it optimal to hedge before the auction, all losers

6 22 NICMAR-Journal of Construction Management, Vol. XXVII, No. 2&3, April-June & July-Sept in the auction find themselves exposed to the common risk factor after the auction. This effect may be termed as "business risk". The incompleteness in projects requires that a project firm hedges before the winner of the project is announced. This timing friction is called "the bid to award period." It arises from two sources. First, bids for complicated projects can take a long time to evaluate because factors other than price such as political considerations, a bidder's technical credentials, and the payment schedule are relevant. For large and complex projects, a two-stage bidding process may even be employed where bidders are first invited to submit technical offers without prices, which are then evaluated to set an acceptable technical standard for all bidders, and then bidders are asked to resubmit bids with prices (Asian Development Bank, April 2006). Second, the bid to award period also includes the time in which the auction is anticipated but has not yet taken place. It has been found that this friction and the existence of financial instruments make firms compete more aggressively because by entering into a hedging position, bidders run the risk of being over hedged if they lose. It has been observed that the spillover between projects can affect firms' investment in projects that they do not compete over. The existence of hedging instruments increases the variability of industry wide investment and returns of the firm because even though ex ante firms are identical, their hedging positions vary and thus make them all different ex post. It has been found that even though the hedging instruments make bidding more aggressive and thus increase seller's profit, business risk reduces it. The seller suffers a loss because bidders have to make hedging decisions prior to knowing the auction outcome, and the loss increases with bid-to-award length. Thus, it is to the seller's advantage to accelerate the evaluation process. This suggests that the framework is most appropriate in markets in which the seller also faces financing constraints and therefore does not provide the hedge or finds it optimal for bidders to retain some risk. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY OF PROJECT CASH FLOW HEDGING CALCULATION In order to calculate project cash flow exposure and hedging requirements, we need to construct a research model for calculating project cash flow exposure in multiple currencies (depends on number of currencies being used in any project as per the project bid document) for three crucial stages of project like pre award stage, post award stage and execution stage. After calculating net project cash flow per currency for three stages, we need to make sensitivity analysis (main purpose of sensitivity analysis is to check impact of exchange rate movements on cash flow valuation to understand hedging requirements) for project cash flow hedging in terms of pre-interest cash flow per currency and consider project net average interest expense (or income) per currency to get a final net cash flow per currency. Then add on a simple sensitivity analysis to show the effects of exchange rate movements. Finally to achieve cash flow hedging aim of minimise net foreign currency cash flow and maximise net base currency (local currency) cash flow, we need to change the currency of the debt and hence the interest expense to local currency. Main purpose of this research exercise is to calculate interest rate impact on overall project cash flow if we charge the debt currency. Crux of this research exercise is to compare project cash flow fluctuation based on currency fluctuation against change in debt currency. Let us understand utility of above research model given in below sections. HOW TO CALCULATE NET CURRENCY PROJECT CASH FLOW FOR HEDGING? In order to calculate net currency project cash flow for hedging, first of all draw up one Table 1 showing project net cash flows per annum in various key

7 Importance of Cash Flow Hedging in Projects from Corporate Sustainability 23 operating currencies (for three crucial stages of project: Pre Award stage, Post Award stage and Execution stage) before interest payments but after tax. To get better project cash flow picture some care has to be taken in collating these numbers. Sometimes there are significant foreign currency cash flows taking place in US $,, etc., which depend on project location (i.e. country) and in which currency cash flow is taking place. Also cash tax is often not the same as the tax shown in the statutory accounts. Foreign currency debt repayments or planned material acquisitions or disposals must also be included in an appropriate manner. Table 1 indicates the format to be used while calculating net currency (net cash flow being calculated after considering three currencies (Indian Rupees INR, US Dollar $, Euro, being widely used by Indian project companies). cash flow estimation, here the project cash flow has been split between the three currencies. There will undoubtedly be required some numbers that cannot be taken straight from the management or statutory accounts, but generally some informed and reasoned judgments will give sufficient accuracy. Table 2 : Net Project Cash Flow Per Currency Project Cash Flow Factors (All figures in millions) Net Cash Flow Pre Interest Interest Net Cash Flow Average of Three Stages INR US $ Total in INR The next thing to do is to average the project cash flow numbers per currency across the three stages of project. If there is a trend over time then some weighting of the average is appropriate. Table 1: Estimated Net Cash Flow Per Annum During Various Stages Of Project (In Multiple Currencies) * Total can be calculated after converting foreign currency in INR based on respective date conversion rates. To calculate the same; some forward looking numbers are required, so some judgment is needed (and no reason to limit up to three stages of project. For minute prediction of project net cash flow, further split in multiple stages as per WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) of project is possible). To illustrate the importance of project cash flow hedging and for broad-brush accuracy of project Having got an average for the pre-interest cash flow per currency, next consider project net average interest expense (or income) per currency, to give final net cash flow per currency. Then add on a simple sensitivity analysis to show the effects of exchange rate movements as shown in Table 3. To understand sensitivity analysis for project cash flow hedging let us consider following case.

8 24 NICMAR-Journal of Construction Management, Vol. XXVII, No. 2&3, April-June & July-Sept PROJECT CASE FOR CALCULATING SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR PROJECT CASH FLOW HEDGING In order to understand sensitivity analysis for project cash flow hedging, assume one project which has average net cash flow pre interest (for three crucial stages of project: Pre Award stage, Post Award stage and Execution stage) in three different currencies (INR, $ and which includes local currency (INR)) are 30,10 and 7 million respectively. Borrowing cost (i.e. Interest applicable) for raising fund in $ and are 3 and 2 million respectively. After plugging above values in Table 3 of sensitivity analysis for project cash flow hedging, we can calculate net cash flow in INR which is coming to 42 million. In this scenario if we assume INR depreciation & appreciation by 5%, then we can find that net cash flow is fluctuating between 40.5 to 43.5 million for 42 million base figures with a fluctuation rate of 3.57%. Table 3 : Sensitivity Analysis For Project Cash Flow Hedging Average of Three Stages Project Cash Flow Factors (All figures in millions) INR US $ TotalinINR Net Cash Flow Pre Interest Interest Net Cash Flow INR Depreciate by 5 % INR Appreciate by 5 % Fluctuation *+/-3.57% Now to understand foreign exchange fluctuation and its impact on cash flow of project and what if projections, there is need to calculate the current value of the project based on its potential future performance and especially its potential future net cash flows. In this case, suppose if both foreign currencies $ and appreciates against local currency INR by 5 % then the project is going to be worth some 3.57 % less to its company and vice-versa if both currencies $ and depreciates against INR by 5 % then the project is going to be worth some 3.57 % more to its company. In this case, project company treasury is going to see that this exposure (i.e. 42 million) is unhedged. Corporate treasury will mark down the cash flow for the uncertainty, and of course if INR does appreciate, then treasury will mark down the cash flow for the fact. Now the question is how can project company hedge against these potentially substantial value impacts? HOW TO HEDGE PROJECT CASH FLOW? Main objective behind this exercise is to minimise net foreign currency cash flow and maximise net base currency cash flow. The less foreign currency cash flow project has as a part of the total cash flow, the less the impact of exchange rate movements on value. The answer in most reallife projects is to look at the only thing that project has to play with i.e. the currency of the interest expense (or income) on debt (or cash). PROJECT CASE FOR CALCULATING IMPACT OF CHANGED DEBT CURRENCY ON PROJECT CASH FLOW To understand impact of change in debt currency on project cash flow let us assume following scenario. In the continuation of above project cash flow example (as mentioned above for calculating Sensitivity Analysis for Project Cash Flow Hedging), look at what happens if we change the currency of the debt from foreign currencies $ and to local currency INR and hence the interest expense to INR. If we assume for the sake of simplicity roughly similar interest rate expense (i.e. 5 million as mentioned in Table 3) as indicated in Table 4. Table 4 : Impact Of Changed Debt Currency On Project Cash Flow Project Cash Flow Factors Average of Three Stages (All figures in millions) INR US $ Total in INR Net Cash Flow Pre Interest Interest -5-5 Net Cash Flow INR Depreciate by 5 % INR Appreciate by 5 % Fluctuation *+/-2.98% If we go ahead with similar depreciation and appreciation of INR by 5% then we can find that

9 Importance of Cash Flow Hedging in Projects from Corporate Sustainability 25 the net cash flow is fluctuating between to million for 42 million base figures with a fluctuation rate of 2.98%. Hence as we can observed in Table 3 & 4 that the sensitivity (after comparing Table-3 & 4) has been come down by 0.59% (3.57% %) between both the scenario. This will reduce the current value mark-down due to uncertainty, and will reduce the actual value mark-down if an adverse change actually occurs a significant enhancement to company valuation. However, in real-life scenario, situations are rarely quite simple like above. Usually, company treasury cell will ask to undertake currency exposure reviews often by FDs and treasurers because they suspect that the company is misaligned but they haven't quite put their finger on the problem, or they want an independent recommendation to support a proposal to the management. Often project companies do have significant unhedged net currency cash flow exposure, and they also have the means of reducing the exposure, sometimes quite dramatically. CONCLUSION There can be no doubt that, alongside the traditional Profit & Loss account and balance sheet views of currency exposure, treasurers should also obtain a net currency cash flow exposure analysis. Suggested outcome of this research can strongly influence aspects of the project treasurer's currency hedging activity, and in particular lead to a change in the currency of the project's debt or cash. Failure to include the results of a net currency cash flow exposure analysis in currency exposure management decisions means that exposure of the project company's value to currency movements has been overlooked, and its management may well not be optimized. This research has exhibited cash flow hedging strategies during the three crucial stages (Pre-Award, Post-Award and Execution) of project. Project bidders know they will face a convex cost of capital in the future, and have an incentive to hedge the cash flow as they bid. Because the bidders' hedging decisions are made prior to the award announcement, they face a basic tradeoff between maximally hedging the cash flow in the event of winning the auction and not hedging any amount in the case of losing. Their optimal hedging strategy depends on their winning probability. Indeed, research has established that the larger the bidder's winning probability, the more complete the hedging will be. The increase in hedging coverage depends on how sensitive the firm's overall payoffs are to changes in internal capital. For Project cash flow hedging relationships, the initial and ongoing prospective effectiveness is assessed by comparing movements in the fair value of the expected highly probable forecast interest cash flows with movements in the fair value of the expected changes in cash flows from the hedging interest rate swap or by comparing the respective changes in the price value of a basis point. Further, the fact that project firms can hedge makes them bid more aggressively. After a project firm commits to a hedging position, it has more to lose because of the business risk that it faces: it is over hedged if it does not win the project. Indeed, the hedging position for a project firm with a large probability of winning can be large enough such that the bid will even exceed that when contracts can be written contingent on winning the auction such that the variation in cash flow can be completely removed. As a result, hedging instruments increase a seller's profit. Overall, this research paper presents a framework in which the effect of a financing friction is magnified in project business due to competition. All Project firms hedge as they anticipate future cash flow constraints. Due to competition, project firms bid away benefits to hedging and in aggregate exacerbate the project industry's constraints. Last but not least effective cash flow hedging strategies will decide any project company's corporate sustainability in a longer run of the firm.

10 26 NICMAR-Journal of Construction Management, Vol. XXVII, No. 2&3, April-June & July-Sept REFERENCES Adam, Tim, Sudipto, Dasgupta, and Sheridan, Titman, Financial constraints, competition, and hedging in industry equilibrium, Journal of Finance, pp , Allayannis, G. and J. Weston, The use of foreign currency derivatives and firm market value, Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 14, pp , Almeida, Heitor, Murillo, Campello, and Michael, Weisbach, The cash flow sensitivity of cash, Journal of Finance, Vol. 59, pp , Froot, K., David, S., and Jeremy, S., Risk management: Coordinating corporate investments and financing policies, Journal of Finance, Vol. 48, pp , Gilchrist, Simon, and Charles Himmelberg, Evidence on the role of cash flow for investment, Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol. 36, pp , Kaplan, Steven, and Luigi, Zingales, Do investmentcash flow sensitivities provide useful measures of financing constraints, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 112, pp , Lidbark, Joacim, Hedging Bid-to-Award Risk, Bank of America Global Corporate and Investment Bank, Monograph, Mello, A., and J. Parsons, Hedging and liquidity, Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 13, pp , Mian, Shehzad, Evidence on corporate hedging policies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 31, pp , Michael, Turner-Samuels, Currency hedging protecting value not just numbers, Treasury Management International, Nance, Deana, Clifford Smith, and Charles Smithson, On the determinants of corporate hedging, Journal of Finance, Vol. 48, pp , Stulz, R. M., Optimal Hedging Policies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, pp , June Stulz, R.M., Managerial Discretion and Optimal Hedging Policies, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 3-27, 1990 Smith, S. M. and R. M. Stulz, The Determinants of Firms Hedging Policies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, pp , Dec Whited, Toni, and Guojun Wu, Financial constraints risk, Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 19, pp , 2006.