A US-based company and a Ukraine-based company are negotiating a direct cross-currency swap.

Posted: January 10th, 2022

A US-based company and a Ukraine-based company are negotiating a direct cross-currency swap. They have identified that it is possible to take advantage of a net borrowing differential in order to lower net borrowing costs by 50 basis points. However, in the end, the board of directors of the US-based company decides that if the deal is to go ahead, it should be an intermediated cross-currency swap, even though the intermediary will take a spread of 0.15 per cent. Analyse and discuss why the board of directors of the US-based company may have decided to proceed with the less profitable intermediated cross-currency swap. (LO 21.3)