Reference no: EM13871864

As VP Finance (Europe) at GE Capital, you manage GE's European exposures to currency risk. GE's light bulb plant in Poland generates Polish zloty (Z) after-tax operating cash inflows of Z10 million per year. Your treasury management team decides to hedge one-half of the expected future cash flow from operations (i.e., 5 million zlotys per year) for each of the next five years. Goldman Sachs quotes the following pricing schedule for currency coupon swaps of zlotys and dollars.

Currency Coupon Swap Pricing Schedule (£/$) Maturity Midrate (in £) 5 years 7.90% sa

Deduct 20 bps if the bank is paying a fixed rate. Add 20 bps if the bank is receiving a fixed rate.

All quotes are against 1-year LIBOR Eurodollar flat.

The spot rate of exchange is Z2.80/$. The dollar and zloty yield curves are flat, with the dollar selling at a forward premium of 3.8 percent per year. Assume bonds in Poland are quoted as a 365-day bond equivalent yield with annual compounding.

To assist in your calculations, here are present value factors for 5-year annuities at various interest rates. (Note: You won't need all of these present value factors. Only use what you need.)

PVIFA(5-years at 8.100000%) = 3.98220886
PVIFA(5-years at 7.900000%) = 4.00325549

PVIFA(5-years at 7.700000%) = 4.02448018
PVIFA(5-years at 3.949904%) = 4.45809446

a. GE has 5-year floating rate dollar debt at a rate of 1-year LIBOR + 32 bps. Describe a fully covered dollar-for-zloty swap using the quotes in the swap pricing schedule. Calculate the all-in cost of GE's floating rate zloty financing.

b. Solidarity Partners (SP) has Z19,811,044 of 5-year zloty debt at 10.24 percent compounded annually. SP wants floating rate dollar debt- with interest payments reset annually- to fund its U.S. operations. Calculate the all-in cost of SP's fully covered zloty-for-dollar swap.

c. What does the swap bank gain from these transactions?