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1、Corporate hedging gets harder公司对冲愈难The perils of prudence慎亦生祸Jun 18th 2009From The Economist print editionThe credit crunch has made it much more difficult and expensive for firms to hedge their risks信用紧缩使得公司对冲风险变得更为不易且成本更高。WARREN BUFFETT, one of the worlds most famous investors, once called derivat
2、ives “financial weapons of mass destruction”. Central bankers worry that those sold “over the counter”, meaning outside exchanges, threaten the stability of the whole financial system. Yet firms that rely on derivatives to limit their exposure to swings in commodity prices, interest rates or exchang
3、e rates cannot get enough of themliterally.世界上最著名的投资家之一，WARREN BUFFETT（沃伦巴菲特）曾经把衍生品叫“金融大规模杀伤性武器”。 央行官员担心这些衍生品的“柜台销售”， 意指他们是在所外交易，会威胁整个金融系统的稳定。 然而，有的公司靠衍生品来减低大宗商品的价格， 利率， 或汇率大幅波动的影响，这些公司对这些衍生品是如饥似渴却又求之不得。 Several firms using derivatives in an attempt to manage such risks have suffered huge losses of
4、late, on paper at any rate. Among the hardest hit have been airlines, many of which paid to protect themselves from higher fuel prices last year when the oil price peaked at $147 a barrel. Because oil now costs much less, many have had to write down the value of those contracts, even if they are not
5、 due to be settled for years. The losers included Cathay Pacific Airways, which made paper losses of close to $1 billion, Ryanair, Air France-KLM and Southwest.几家公司想用衍生品来对付上述风险， 近来蒙受巨大损失。 各个公司账面的损失各有不同。损失最惨重的当属航空公司了，很多航空企业在去年原油价格升至每桶147美元的时候买入了衍生品以期对冲未来可能进一步升高的油价。 但是因为现在油价大跌，尽管这些合同还要好几年才会到期，很多公司也不得不
6、因为这些浮亏而记提账面损失。亏失的公司有 Cathay Pacific Airways (国泰航空)， 它账面损失近十亿； 还有Ryanair （瑞安航空），Air France-KLM （法国航空- KLM） 和 Southwest （西南）.Nonetheless, firms seem as keen to hedge as ever. According to a study by Greenwich Associates, a consultancy, big American, European and Asian firms hedged 55% of their exposur
7、e to fuels last year, up from 45% the year before. Even some of the airlines that posted large losses on derivatives tied to the oil price are buying more of them. Ryanair recently said that it has entered contracts to fix the price of 90% of its fuel for the first nine months of this year, almost t
8、wice the proportion it had hedged in January. Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, is buying instruments that will protect it from falling as well as rising fuel prices.然而， 这些公司却“冲”情有加，前所不及。 据咨询公司Greenwich Associates （格林威治联营公司） 的一个研究，美洲， 欧洲， 和亚洲的大公司去年对冲了55%的燃油，比去年的45%高。 有些航空公司账面有大量的油价衍生品损失， 他们却还在购买更多的衍生品。 Rya
9、nair （瑞安航空）最近说， 它已签了合同，固定了今年头九个月90%的燃油的价格。这个比例接近今年一月时的两倍。而Cathay Pacific (国泰航空)购买的金融和约则既能对冲燃油价格升值，亦能对冲其下跌的风险。 The main reason for this enthusiasm, says David Carter, an academic at Oklahoma State University and one of the authors of several papers studying fuel hedging in the airline industry, is th
10、at banks are normally more willing to lend to firms that have reduced their risks by hedging. That in turn allows them, for instance, to buy cheap assets from ailing rivals.David Carter（大卫卡特）是在Oklahoma（俄克拉荷马）州立大学的学术界人士，与人合作著有好几篇研究航空业中的燃油对冲的论文。他说，公司有如此热情的主要原因，是银行通常更愿意贷款给靠对冲减少了风险的公司，从而使它们能腾出手来有所动作，比如，
11、从病入膏肓的对手手上购买便宜的资产。Far from suppressing firms appetite for derivatives, the turmoil in the worlds financial markets has increased it. Of the big corporations Greenwich surveyed last year, 38% used options to manage currency fluctuations, up from 28% a year earlier, and the volume of currency options
12、they bought had increased by about a third. In general, the use of interest-rate and currency options has risen dramatically in recent years (see chart).金融风暴非但没有抑制公司对衍生品的需求，反大开其胃口。Greenwich（格林威治）去年调查的大企业中， 38 用期权对冲来管理货币波动，高于一年前的28%， 买的数量也增加了约三分之一。概而言之，近年来，利率和货币期权对冲的使用量急剧上升（见图）。But in the second half
13、 of last year, such hedging declined for the first time since 2001, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, an industry group. Thanks largely to the credit crunch, banks are selling fewer derivatives at a higher cost. Many firms, especially those with weaker credit ratings,
14、 have simply been frozen out of the market for derivatives by banks reduced willingness to carry risk. Bankers say that only the few airlines with the highest credit ratings have been able to add to their hedge books in recent months to take advantage of lower oil prices.但在去年下半年，根据国际掉期及衍生品协会（这是一个行业团
15、体）的报道,对冲自2001年以来首次下降。银行销售的衍生品现在价涨量跌，这很大程度上要归咎于信贷的紧缩。许多企业，尤其是那些信贷评级低的，干脆被冻结出了衍生品市场， 因为银行不愿有大风险。银行家们说，在近数月中， 只有麟毛凤角的几家航空公司， 因为有很高的信用评级，才被加在他们的对冲帐目里。 这几家公司也因此才能利用较低的石油价格。The bankers reluctance stems from the nature of hedging contracts which, although not officially loans, nonetheless create liabilitie
16、s between banks and their customers which grow or shrink as the underlying variable changes. Thus many of the airlines that had hedged their fuel consumption when oil prices were higher built up huge notional debts to banks, even though no money was due to change hands until the contracts reached the end of their lives, by which time oil prices could have risen again. The amounts concerned can easily grow to exceed the internal limi
