The Centralia Corporation is a U.S. manufacturer of small kitchen electrical appliances. It has decided to construct a wholly owned manufacturing facility in Zaragoza, Spain, to manufacture microwave ovens for sale in the European Union. The plant is expected to cost €5,500,000, and to take about one year to complete. The plant is to be financed over its economic life of eight years. The borrowing capacity created by this capital expenditure is $2,900,000; the remainder of the plant will be equity financed. Centralia is not well known in the Spanish or international bond market; consequently, it would have to pay 7 percent per annum to borrow euros, whereas the normal borrowing rate in the euro zone for well-known firms of equivalent risk is 6 percent. Alternatively, Centralia can borrow dollars in the United States at a rate of 8 percent.
Suppose a Spanish MNC has a mirror-image situation and needs $2,900,000 to finance a capital expenditure of one of its U.S. subsidiaries. It finds that it must pay a 9 percent fixed rate in the United States for dollars, whereas it can borrow euros at 6 percent. The exchange rate has been forecast to be $1.33/€1.00 in one year. Set up a currency swap that will benefit each counterparty.