Foreign Exchange Exposure and Management : Case study of two large Multinationals

Abstract: With instability in financial markets and currency values, particularly the U.S dollar following the global financial crises, this paper seeks to examine how two large multinational firms conduct their currency risk management policies. Attention is paid to observe any discrepancies between what the firms do and what academic literature recommends. Both firms actively manage all three forms of currency exposures with particularly higher involvements in economic exposure management in contrast to some academic literature. However one of the firms, Trelleborg AB does not manage its profit and lose translation exchange risk originating from translation of income statements of its subsidiaries. Even though most academics do not recommend management of translation exposure because it purportedly has no cash flow implications for the firm, findings here as shown in both case studies indicate that at least some  multinationals manage translation exposure possibly because doing so reduces their stakeholder's perceived risk.