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Strategy and finance.

MBA/MBA equivalent programme – finance specialisation.

In June 2009, Mr Rakesh Vora, CEO of Alpha Power Ltd, India was facing problems while deciding the appropriate business model of the company. Without the existence of an adequate business plan, the CFO, Mr Harish Gupta, could not decide the adequate capital structure and valuation of the one million shares the company planned to issue in the market through private placement.

Alpha Power Ltd is planning to start two power plants at Jatra and Chhapra. The plants are to be funded by a prudent mix of debt and equity; but, it has major issues regarding the financing arrangements. The management is undecided about how to fund these projects. Power sector in India is booming; however, the challenges faced by the company are numerous. They include possibility of a slowdown, different buying/leasing options for land, option of using better technology, decision regarding importing of superior quality, but high-cost coal and valuation of the company using various approaches, etc.

The case is intended to help future finance professionals understand the working of power plants in India and experience the decision-making process faced by managers, while making a business plan and raising funds for power projects.

Teaching notes.

Adani Power Limited (A) is the first case in a series of cases on the attempts by the firm to wriggle out of negative consequences of long-term fixed price power purchase agreements it had entered into. The firm wanted to terminate the agreement on the ground that its bid was based on coal allocation by another Government owned entity. This case describes as to how the firm was unable to get the contract terminated due to regulatory interventions. The case also raises public policy issues including the robustness of guidelines for procurement of power.

There have been plans to merge UCO Bank with larger banks owing to its poor performance for many years. There were leaders in the history who had not been committed. The inadequate governance of the bank has been responsible for some of the major lapses. Mr. Arun Kaul took strategic initiatives and systematically strengthened the functioning of the board. It enabled the bank to turnaround and report profits in challenging economic conditions. The Bank is not yet completely safe and probably need strengthening of its competencies to emerging challenges.

In 2010, approximately one-third of US children and adolescents were classified as at least overweight, with 17 percent classified as obese. In addition to other causes, the marketing and advertising of food directly to children was identified by a Task Force on Childhood Obesity as a contributing factor. As a result, food industries began to self-regulate. Consumer advocacy organizations developed guidelines for advertising products targeted to children. Cereal companies, such as General Mills (GM), struggled with whether or not to adopt those standards. GM began to change both marketing and product advertising in small ways. The changes were considered steps in the right direction but GM continued to be under scrutiny of advocacy groups. This case addresses the struggle of General Mills to make changes to product nutritional content and/or marketing and to address the societal concern about childhood obesity while also meeting responsibilities to consumers and shareholders.

The case was researched utilizing secondary data – all materials are readily available to the public. There is no disguise of any actual person or entity and no relationship between the authors and the organizations or individuals mentioned in the case. Frequent sources include the General Foods, Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative and Center for Science in the Public Interest web pages.

This case could be used at an undergraduate or graduate level. Legal Environment of Business, Business Ethics and any Marketing course.

The ethics frameworks in most business law or ethics textbooks may be used to discuss the dilemma identified in this case. This Instructor's Manual uses Hosmer's model. Hosmer (2008), The Ethics of Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 7th ed.

Aurelia Dimas had been sent to investigate the various properties being offered by the State of California in the form of a sale-leaseback agreement. The opportunity was perfect for her firm, Orrington Financial Partners, which had recently expanded its fixed-income portfolio to include real estate. The wide range of offerings in the Golden State Portfolio provided both diversification and stability over a period of decades. She had spent the last week walking the halls of each and every building to see the offering first hand. Now the task of valuing the portfolio rested on her shoulders.

By reading and analyzing this case, students will be exposed to real estate valuation and understand the issues with a sale-leaseback investment. The objectives are obtained by requiring students to justify how and why they make adjustments to the cash flow forecasts provided to them by a real estate advisory firm, explain their methodology for arriving at a specific value for a piece (or a portfolio) of commercial property, and debate the pros and cons of a sale-leaseback structure.

This case reviews different varieties of currency crises and two in particular: United Kingdom in 1992 and Hong Kong in 1998. These were two very different types of crises, and understanding them could serve the protagonist well when future crises occurred.

In the wake of the December 2015 Paris COP21 (Conference of Parties), and India's announced renewable energy commitments, Reliance Power is reviewing its renewable energy investments to arrive at a long term strategy for the role of renewable energy in its power generation portfolio and the financing of renewable projects. The case reviews the Indian government's policies to promote renewable energy; the evolution of the renewable energy sector; and Reliance Power's financing of renewable energy investments. The case requires identification of alternative long term strategies and their financing implications. This case serves as an introduction to renewable energy from the perspective of Reliance Power, a large private power generator of the country. These projects also provide a learning opportunity for Reliance Power to deal with fast evolving renewable technologies.

This case describes the growth of ReNew Power during its first decade of operation. Sumant Sinha, a first-generation entrepreneur and former banker, founded the company, which grew from a modest generator-cum-developer of wind energy-based electricity to one of India's largest companies in the renewable energy sector. With the entry of large, well-funded players such as Tata Power and Adani Green into the Indian renewable sector by the end of 2020, Sinha had to make a strategic decision: should ReNew continue to organically scale up its presence in an increasingly competitive yet expanding Indian renewable energy sector, should it diversify geographically, or should it pursue emerging opportunities for vertical or horizontal integration within the sector? The case provides an opportunity to discuss how alternative business models and competitive scenarios may facilitate or inhibit the growth of a player in the renewable energy sector.

UrbanClap was setup in October 2014 to address the opportunity of bringing the workforce from the unorganised sector into the mainstream using the power of technology. It was an on-demand marketplace for services available through a mobile app. In the initial years, UrbanClap, developed as horizontal marketplace, saw intense competition from existing and new players who were operating in the hyperlocal services space. It competed in the on-demand service marketplace by categorising its services into a lead generation business (where it connected customers with the service provider and charged a fee for matchmaking) and a fulfilment business (where UrbanClap took end-to-end responsibility for quality of service delivery). After three and half years of operations, the three co-founders wondered if it was time they moved out of lead generation and instead focussed on the fulfilment business.

Greenko, a renewable power generating company investing in biomass, small and medium hydro power and wind power projects, had projected to achieve 1GW (Giga Watt = 1000 Mega Watt) of installed capacity by March 2015. The company had been financing its projects with debt from Indian banks and financial institutions on a project finance basis and it had to now decide whether to refinance the project finance debt with an international bond issue of USD 550 million. The case provides an opportunity to discuss the public policy and financing aspects of renewable energy in India.