Assume PHISH Oil Co. is interested in acquiring a firm in Country B as part of its global expansion plan. Assume that PHISH Oil Co. was bidding on an acquisition with the price based on a 6.0x multiple of Target's trailing 12 months EBITDA, which has been confirmed to be 15,000,000 in Country B currency. The current exchange rate is 1.40, meaning $1.40USD will exchange into 1 Country B currency unit. PHISH Oil Co. seeks to finance 100% of the acquisition price. To complete the acquisition, assume that PHISH Oil Co. has two financing choices, both of which rely on the new cash flow of the acquisition target as well as the credit strength of PHISH Oil Co.: I. First, it can finance the acquisition with a two-part facility. The first part will be senior loan provided by its U.S. based bank at an interest rate of 5 percent and based on a maximum loan size equal to a leverage multiple of 2.5x TTM EBITDA of the target. The remainder of the facility will be provided by a U.S. based mezzanine lender at a rate of 12 percent. All payments under this approach will be due and payable to the bank in USD. For both of these debt facilities, the PHISH Oil Co. U.S. parent company would be the borrower, not the Country B subsidiary it is acquiring. II. As an alternative, PHISH Oil Co. has identified a so-called 'Uni-tranche' lender in Country B to provide a single loan in the full amount of the acquisition price based on a leverage multiple of 6x TTM EBITDA, priced at an interest rate of 10 percent. For this debt facility, the Country B subsidiary would be the borrower and all payments under this approach will be due and payable the Country B subsidiary to the Country B lender in Country B currency. PHISH Oil Co. has conducted extensive analysis of the expected trend in the currency relationship between USD and Country B currency, and a conclusion has been reached that the USD will be expected to strengthen relative to Country B currency over the foreseeable future and result in an exchange rate of 1.20. That being said, they are not sure that their analysis will actually prove correct.

1. Assume hypothetically (for this question only) that the blended interest rate and terms of borrowing the necessary funds denominated in USD and Country B currency were identical. Assume that the only differences between the two alternatives are (1) who the borrower if record is and (2) the currency in which the payments must be made. If PHISH Oil Co.'s speculative projection of the exchange rate trend between USD and Country B currencies actually came true:

What would be the consequences of the expected currency shift on PHISH Oil Co. if they had selected the USD-denominated debt facility?

What would be the consequences of the expected currency shift on PHISH Co. if they had selected the Country B-denominated debt facility?

2. Which of the two actual financing approaches would you recommend and why would you make that recommendation?

3. What is the effective or blended interest rate of the two acquisition financing proposals set out above under both alternatives 'I' and 'II' before reflecting the tax-deductibility of the loan interest?

4. What is the projected purchase price of the acquisition target expressed in both USD and Country B currencies?