Company Risk Management Pfizer Chief Financial Officer...

In January 2015, Pfizer Chief Financial Officer Frank D Amelio said that foreign exchange rates will hurt 2015 sales by $2.8 billion, or 17 cents a share, if the dollar remains at its current high levels. Pfizer operates like most MNCs by most likely utilizing hedging to reduce the volatility spawned by fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. But what you really need to understand is that there are risks involved in FX hedging itself. Most analysts tend to prefer long-term hedging over short-term hedging, the long-term variety can lead a MNC to be over-hedged. Understanding FX risk in the context of enterprise risk management enables finance chiefs to not fall into the trap of over-hedging their FX risk. One way to avoid over-hedging is to hedge only the minimum known payment involved in the future transaction. By hedging a portion of the transactions, a company can reduce the sensitivity of its cash flows to exchange rate movements without creating serious mismatches between the hedge and the risk. In this way, ERM — which consists of managers taking a holistic view of their company’s various risks, prioritizing the material ones, and devising ways to curb them — can help CFOs identify the most volatile foreign exchange rates and reduce some of the guesswork involved in deciding how much of their foreign exchange risk to hedge. Companies like Pfizer exposed to the risk of overestimating their future foreign sales, may negotiate currency hedges that end up being farShow MoreRelatedCase Study148348 Words   |  594 Pages978-0-273-73552-6 (web) ï £ © Pearson Education Limited 2011 Lecturers adopting the main text are permitted to download and photocopy the manual as required. Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England and Associated Companies around the world. Visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsoned.co.uk ---------------------------------This edition published 2011  © Pearson Education Limited 2011 The rights of Gerry Johnson, Richard Whittington and Kevan Scholes to be identified