Finance Case Studies

Canary Wharf: Financing and Placemaking

William N. Goetzmann, Jean Rosenthal, and Jaan Elias

Asset Management, Business History, Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds, State & Society

The financial engineering of London's Canary Wharf was as impressive as the structural engineering. However, Brexit and the rise of fintech represented new challenges. Would financial firms leave the U.K.? Would fintech firms seek new kinds of space? How should the Canary Wharf Group respond?

The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

Jean Rosenthal, Anna Williams, Brandon Colon, Robert Park, William Goetzmann, Jessica Helfand  

Business History, Customer/Marketing, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance

Shopping malls became the "Main Street" of US suburbs beginning in the mid-20th century. But will they persist into the 21st?

Hirtle Callaghan & Co

James Quinn, Jaan Elias, and Adam Blumenthal

Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork

In August 2019, Stephen Vaccaro, Yale MBA ‘03, became the director of private equity at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., LLC (HC), a leading investment management firm associated with pioneering the outsourced chief investment office (OCIO) model for college endowments, foundations, and wealthy families. Vaccaro was tasked with spearheading efforts to grow HC’s private equity (PE) market value from $1 billion to a new target of roughly $3 billion in order to contribute to the effort of generating higher long-term returns for clients. Would investment committees overseeing endowments typically in the 10s or 100s of millions embrace this shift, and, more pointedly, was this the best move for client portfolios?

The Federal Reserve Response to 9-11

Jean Rosenthal, William B. English, Jaan Elias

Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, State & Society

The attacks on New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on September 11, 2001, shocked the nation and the world. The attacks crippled the nerve center of the U.S. financial system. Information flow among banks, traders in multiple markets, and regulators was interrupted. Under Roger Ferguson's leadership, the Federal Reserve made a series of decisions designed to provide confidence and increase liquidity in a severely damaged financial system. In hindsight, were these the best approaches? Were there other options that could have taken place?

Suwanee Lumber Company (B)

Jaan Elias, Adam Blumenthal, James Shovlin, and Heather E. Tookes

Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Sustainability

In early 2018, Blue Wolf Capital Management received an offer to sell both its mill in Arkansas (Caddo) and its mill in Florida (Suwanee) to Conifex, an upstart Canadian lumber company. Blue Wolf hadn’t planned to put both mills up for sale yet, but was the deal too good to pass up? Blue Wolf had invested nearly $36.5 million into rehabilitating the Suwanee and Caddo mills. However, neither was fully operational yet. Did the offer price fairly value the prospects of the mills? How should Blue Wolf consider the Conifex stock? Should Blue Wolf conduct a more extensive sales process rather than settle for this somewhat unexpected offer?

Occidental Petroleum's Acquisition of Anadarko

Jaan Elias, Piyush Kabra, Jacob Thomas, K. Geert Rouwenhorst

Asset Management, Competitor/Strategy, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds

In May of 2019, Vicki Hollub, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), pulled off a blockbuster. Bidding against Chevron, one of the world's largest oil firms, she had managed to buy Anadarko, another oil company that was roughly the size of Oxy. Hollub believed that the combination of the two firms brought the possibility for billions of dollars in synergies, more than offsetting the cost of the acquisition. Had Hollub hurt shareholder value with Oxy's ambitious deal, or had she bolstered a mid-size oil firm and made it a major player in the petroleum industry? Why didn't investors see the tremendous synergies in which Hollub fervently believed?

Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

Jean Rosenthal, Geert Rouwenhorst, Jacob Thomas, Allen Xu

Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds

In 2019, Hertz held a successful rights offering and restructured some of its debt. CEO Kathyrn Marinello and CFO Jamere Jackson were moving the company toward what seemed to be sustainable profitability, having implemented major structural and financial reforms. Analysts predicted a rosy future. Travel, particularly corporate travel, was increasing as the economy grew. With all the creativity that the company had shown in its financial arrangements, did it have any options remaining, even while under the court-led reorganization?

Prodigy Finance

Vero Bourg-Meyer, Javier Gimeno, Jaan Elias, Florian Ederer

Competitor/Strategy, Investor/Finance, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability

Having pioneered a successful financing model for student loans, Prodigy also was considering other financial services that could make use of the company’s risk model. What new products could Prodigy offer to support its student borrowers? What strategy should guide the company’s new product development? Or should the company stick to the educational loans it pioneered and knew best?

tronc: Valuing the Future of Newspapers

Jean Rosenthal, Heather E. Tookes, and Jaan Elias

Business History, Competitor/Strategy, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork

Gannet offered Tribune Publishing an all-cash buyout offer. Tribune then made a strategic pivot: new stock listing, new name "tronc," and a goal of posting 1,000 videos/day. Should the Tribune board take the buyout opportunity? What was the right price?

Role of Hedge Funds in Institutional Portfolios: Florida Retirement System

Jaan Elias, William Goetzmann and Lloyd Baskin

Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, State & Society

The Florida Retirement System, one of the country’s largest state pensions, had been slow to embrace hedge funds, but by 2015, they had 7% of their assets in the category. How should they manage their program?

Social Security 1935

Jean Rosenthal, William N. Goetzmann, and Jaan Elias

Business History, Financial Regulation, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, State & Society

Frances Perkins, Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, shaped the Social Security Act of 1935, changing America’s pension landscape. What might she have done differently?

Ant Financial: Flourishing Farmer Loans at MYbank

Jingyue Xu, Jean Rosenthal, K. Sudhir, Hua Song, Xia Zhang, Yuanfang Song, Xiaoxi Liu, and Jaan Elias

Competitor/Strategy, Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Operations, State & Society

In 2015 Ant Financial's MYbank (an offshoot of Jack Ma’s Alibaba company) created the Flourishing Farmer Loan program, an all-internet banking service for China's rural areas. Could MYbank use financial technology to create a program with competitive costs and risk management?

Low-Carbon Investing: Commonfund & GPSU

Jaan Elias, William Goetzmann, and K. Geert Rouwenhorst

Asset Management, Ethics & Religion, Investor/Finance, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability

In August of 2014, the movement to divest fossil fuel investments from endowment portfolios was sweeping campuses across the United States, including Gifford Pinchot State University (GPSU). How should GPSU and its investment partner Commonfund react?

360 State Street: Real Options

Andrea Nagy Smith and Mathew Spiegel

Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, Sourcing/Managing Funds

360 State Street proved successful, but what could Bruce Becker construct on the 6,000-square-foot vacant lot at the southwest corner of the project? Under what set of circumstances and at what time would it be most advantageous to proceed? Or should he build anything at all?

Centerbridge

Jean Rosenthal and Olav Sorensen

Asset Management, Employee/HR, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork

When Jeffrey Aronson and Mark Gallogly founded Centerbridge, they hoped to grow the firm, but not to a point that it would lose its culture. Having added an office in London, could the firm add more locations and maintain its collegial character?

George Hudson and the 1840s Railway Mania

Andrea Nagy Smith, James Chanos, and James Spellman

Business History, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data

Railways were one of the original disruptive technologies: they transformed England from an island of slow, agricultural villages into a fast, urban, industrialized nation.  George Hudson was the central figure in the mania for railroad shares in England. After the share value crashed, some analysts blamed Hudson, others pointed to irrational investors and still others maintained the crash was due to macroeconomic factors.

Demosthenes and Athenian Finance

Andrea Nagy Smith and William Goetzmann

Business History, Financial Regulation, Law & Contracts

Demosthenes' Oration 35, "Against Lacritus," contains the only surviving maritime loan contract from the fourth century B.C., proving that the ancient Greeks had devised a commercial code to link the economic lives of people from all over the Greek world.   Athenians and non-Athenians alike came to the port of Piraeus to trade freely.

South Sea Bubble

Frank Newman and William Goetzmann

Business History, Financial Regulation

The story of the South Sea Company and its seemingly absurd stock price levels always enters into conversations about modern valuation bubbles.  Because of its modern application, discerning what was at the root of the world's first stock market crash merits considerable attention. What about the South Sea Company and the political, economic and social context in which it operated led to its stunning collapse?

UAW VEBA

Jean W. Rosenthal, Jaan Elias, William N. Goetzmann, Stanley Garstka, and Jacob Thomas

Asset Management, Healthcare, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds, State & Society

A centerpiece of the 2007 contract negotiations between the UAW and GM - and later with Chrysler and Ford - was establishing a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) to provide for retiree healthcare costs. The implications were substantial.

Northern Pulp: A Private Equity Firm Resurrects a Troubled Paper Company

Heather Tookes, Peter Schott, Francesco Bova, Jaan Elias and Andrea Nagy Smith

Investor/Finance, Macroeconomics, State & Society, Sustainability

In 2008, the lumber industry was in a severe recession, yet Blue Wolf Capital Management was considering investment in a paper mill in Nova Scotia. How should they proceed?

Lahey Clinic: North Shore Expansion

Jaan Elias, Andrea R. Nagy, Jessica P. Strauss, and William N. Goetzmann

Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Healthcare, Investor/Finance

In early 2007 the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts believed that expansion of its North Shore facility was not only a smart strategy but also a business necessity.  The two years of turmoil in the Massachusetts health care market prompted observers to question Lahey's 2007 decisions. Did the expansion strategy still make sense?

Carry Trade ETF

K. Geert Rouwenhorst, Jean W. Rosenthal, and Jaan Elias

Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Macroeconomics, Sourcing/Managing Funds

In 2006 Deutsche Bank (DB) brought a new product to market – an exchange traded fund (ETF) based on the carry trade, a strategy of buying and selling currency futures. The offering received the William F. Sharpe Indexing Achievement Award for “Most Innovative Index Fund or ETF” at the 2006 Sharpe Awards. These awards are presented annually by IndexUniverse.com and Information Management Network for innovative advances in the indexing industry. The carry trade ETF shared the award with another DB/PowerShares offering, a Commodity Index Tracking Fund. Jim Wiandt, publisher of IndexUniverse.com, said, "These innovators are shaping the course of the index industry, creating new tools and providing new insights for the benefit of all investors." What was it that made this financial innovation successful?

Hawara

William Goetzmann and Jaan Elias

Asset Management, Business History

Hawara is the site of the massive pyramid of Amenemhat III, a XII Dynasty [Middle Kingdom, 1204 – 1604 B.C.E.] pharaoh.  The Hawara Labyrinth and Pyramid Complex present a wealth of information about the Middle Kingdom.  Among its treasures are papyri covering property rights and transfers of ownership.