Briefly discuss special factors associated with the following areas of multinational working capital management:
(I) Cash management
(2) Credit management
(3) Inventory management
Citrus Products Inc. is a medium-sized producer of citrus juice drinks with groves in Indian River County, Florida. Until now, the company has confined its operations and sales to the United States, but its CEO, George Gaynor, wants to expand into Europe. The first step would be to set up sales subsidiaries in Spain and Sweden, then to set up a production plant in Spain, and, finally, to distribute the product throughout the European common market. The firm’s financial manager, Ruth Schmidt, is enthusiastic about the plan, but she is worried about the implications of the foreign expansion on the firm’s financial management process. She has asked you, the firm’s most recently hired financial analyst, to develop a 1 -hour tutorial package that explains the basics of multinational financial management. The tutorial will be presented at the next board of directors’ meeting. To get you started, Schmidt has supplied you with the following list of questions: