Galaxy International is a small privately held company in the Northeast U.S. which manufactures high- tech carbon composite skis for the U.S. market. The company has been in business for 20 years, has 125 employees, and has $50 million in annual sales. Its owner, Jeremy Riven, is an ex-Olympic skier who developed the proprietary technology and bonding polymers that give Galaxy skis their unique flexibility, durability, and propensity to need low maintenance—all of which serious skiers in the U.S. have come to prize. Major costs involved in the manufacturing of skis are oil polymers, carbon fiber, and labor. Ski technicians are highly skilled machinists, and manufacturing the finished product is as much an art form as it is a science.

Jeremy has recently considered an initial public offering (IPO) to allow the firm to raise the funds it needs to go international. The underwriting group from Morgan Stanley believes they could easily raise sixty (60) million in the equity markets, and fifty (50) million in the bond market. Jeremy is trying to determine the cost of debt, the cost of equity (four [4] million shares at $15/share), and the firm’s weighted average cost of capital if he goes public and issues corporate bonds with a coupon rate of 8%. Last year, the firm resided in a 28% tax bracket. The risk-free rate in the U.S. is 2%, and the expected return on the market is 14%. Morgan Stanley estimates Galaxy’s beta, if traded publicly, would be approximately 1.8%. Galaxy has been growing at 15% a year since its inception.

Jeremy would like to expand his current U.S. facility from 40,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet, automate certain processes which heretofore have been done manually, and outsource work to China, where he plans to either build or lease a plant to extend his ski line worldwide. He could build a 50,000- square-foot facility in Canton for fifty (50) million dollars, or lease a similar facility for ten (10) million a year. Annual operating costs would be twenty (20) million dollars, and projected free cash flow, based on past experience, would be twelve (12) million a year (whether he leases or buys). The life of the plant would be fifteen (15) years, and inflation in China is currently running at 6% annually. Galaxy would repatriate profits from the Chinese operation and consolidate them with those of the U.S. operations. All expenses of operating the plant in China would be in Yuan.

Use the Internet to locate information about current events in China related to its economic state.

(6-8) page paper

1. Examine the pros and cons of an IPO for Galaxy International. Recommend whether the company should or should not proceed with an IPO.

2. Evaluate the appropriateness of the financing alternatives and strategies that are available to Jeremy, and select the one (1) you believe best suits the company. Provide support for your rationale.

3. Determine the advantages of debt over equity, and what each would cost after taxes. Determine

Galaxy’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) if it uses both alternatives to raise capital (i.e., debt and equity).

4. Recommend one (1) financial instrument that Jeremy could use in order to ensure a stable supply of oil for his operations and to protect his firm from currency translation losses.

5. Suggest one (1) approach that Jeremy can use to hedge his currency translation and transaction exposure to the Yuan. Provide support for your suggestion.

6. Determine whether Jeremy should lease or buy the plant in China. Justify your position using information regarding the current economic state in China.

7. Imagine that you are a portfolio manager. Determine whether or not you would want to participate in the IPO if Galaxy International goes public. Provide a rationale for your decision. Determine the expected return on the stock using Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM).

8. Determine if the Galaxy International’s expected returns would exceed its WACC. Provide a rationale.

9. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites to not qualify as academic resources.

 formatting requirements:

·        Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

7 weeks MyStatLab

All quizzes, homework and Tests

$30 a week every Sunday Starting at the completion of week 2 in the course 7/6/2014

Course Project

(4a) In this part of the course project, you will develop a plan for increasing motivation in your chosen organization.

Write a 2-3 page paper based on your research (you can make reasonable assumptions about the organization when necessary) that discusses:.

• How does your chosen organization currently motivate its workforce and how well do employees perform as a whole?
• Where do you feel the organization may be lacking in terms of motivating others?
• What suggestions or changes do you recommend to this organization in order to foster a more motivating environment that will enhance the performance of employees?

Your assignment should be 2 pages in length.

900 Words- 3 References

Research a top multinational company in the world including its international strategy over the last 10 years. Using your research, write a report explaining its strategy, including a discussion of the following questions:

• What sort of international orientation does it have?
• Do you think it is ethno-, poly-, or geocentric?
• What were the decision factors for the locations it chose to expand in?
• Did it have the core capabilities to succeed in those markets?
  • Think about its objectives, how it chose its countries, what opportunities and constraints were apparent at the time, and what it needed to do to succeed in those markets.
• Define what a value chain dispersal and integration strategy is, and then describe how the strategy is organized around it.

A county health department wants to increase the number of Medicaid beneficiaries that participate in prenatal care. It knows that only 40 percent of the expectant mothers eligible for prenatal care fully use the benefit. Many of these target customers make only one or two prenatal visits and then drop out of the program. Most of these women visit the emergency room if they have problems during pregnancy, and also come to the emergency room when they are in labor.

In 5- to 6-pages: 

1. Define at least four questions you would need to ask in order to write a SWOT analysis.
2. Write vision and mission statements for the county health department that provides services to pregnant women.
3. Write at least four objectives for the department. In your objectives, try to address the problem presented in the scenario.