Evaluation of risk management and financial performance of BMW Group

Effective risk and financial management possess a great challenge for the multinational companies operating globally. Despite the increasing development of diverse hedging strategies against foreign exchange risk, global firms cannot fully foresee and measure the degree of the impact of foreign currency fluctuations. This paper aims to evaluate the exchange risk management and financial performance of the BMW Group from the year 2005 to 2016. Moreover, this paper is devoted to provide explanatory information on the impact of foreign exchange exposure on the financial performance of the company by the usage of information provided by the annual reports. The first section of the paper establishes the theoretical concepts of risk management with emphasis on exchange rate risk and financial performance analysis, which support the following study. The analysis of the industry and BMW Group business operations worldwide, currency movement, detailed accounting examination, financial ratio, peer group, exchange rate exposure and hedging strategies are performed to examine the relation between the financial performance and foreign exchange risk management. The analysis reveals that the effective hedging strategies against the foreign exchange risk may substantially impact the financial performance and overall positioning of the company in the competitive environment.