Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
In the normal course of business and consistent with established policies and procedures, we employ a variety of financial instruments to manage exposure to fluctuations in the value of foreign currencies and interest rates. It is our policy to utilize these financial instruments only where necessary to finance our business and manage such exposures; we do not enter into these transactions for trading or speculative purposes.
We are exposed to foreign currency fluctuations, primarily as a result of our international sales, product sourcing and funding activities. Our foreign exchange risk management program is intended to lessen both the positive and negative effects of currency fluctuations on our consolidated results of operations, financial position and cash flows. We use forward and option contracts to hedge certain anticipated, but not yet firmly committed, transactions as well as certain firm commitments and the related receivables and payables, including third-party and intercompany transactions. Where exposures are hedged, our program has the effect of delaying the impact of exchange rate movements on our Consolidated Financial Statements.
The timing for hedging exposures, as well as the type and duration of the hedge instruments employed, are guided by our hedging policies and determined based upon the nature of the exposure and prevailing market conditions. Typically, the Company may enter into hedge contracts starting 12 to 24 months in advance of the forecasted transaction and may place incremental hedges up to 100% of the exposure by the time the forecasted transaction occurs. The majority of derivatives outstanding as of May 31, 2025, are designated as foreign currency cash flow hedges, primarily for Euro/U.S. Dollar, Chinese Yuan/U.S. Dollar, British Pound/Euro, and Japanese Yen/U.S. Dollar currency pairs. Refer to Note 12 — Risk Management and Derivatives in the accompanying Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Our earnings are also exposed to movements in short- and long-term market interest rates. Our objective in managing this interest rate exposure is to limit the impact of interest rate changes on earnings and cash flows and to reduce overall borrowing costs. To achieve these objectives, we maintain a mix of commercial paper, bank loans, and fixed-rate debt of varying maturities and have entered into receive-fixed, pay-variable interest rate swaps for a portion of our fixed-rate debt.
MARKET RISK MEASUREMENT
We monitor foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk and related derivatives using a variety of techniques including a review of market value, sensitivity analysis and Value-at-Risk ("VaR"). Our market-sensitive derivative and other financial instruments are foreign currency forward contracts, foreign currency option contracts, interest rate swaps, intercompany loans denominated in non-functional currencies and fixed interest rate U.S. Dollar denominated debt.
We use VaR to monitor the foreign exchange risk of our foreign currency forward and foreign currency option derivative instruments only. The VaR determines the maximum potential one-day loss in the fair value of these foreign exchange rate-sensitive financial instruments. The VaR model estimates assume normal market conditions and a 95% confidence level. There are various modeling techniques that can be used in the VaR computation. Our computations are based on interrelationships between currencies and interest rates (a "variance/co-variance" technique). These interrelationships are a function of foreign exchange currency market changes and interest rate changes over the preceding one-year period. The value of foreign currency options does not change on a one-to-one basis with changes in the underlying currency rate. We adjust the potential loss in option value for the estimated sensitivity (the "delta" and "gamma") to changes in the underlying currency rate. This calculation reflects the impact of foreign currency rate fluctuations on the derivative instruments only and does not include the impact of such rate fluctuations on non-functional currency transactions (such as anticipated transactions, firm commitments, cash balances and accounts and loans receivable and payable), including those which are hedged by these instruments.
The VaR model is a risk analysis tool and does not purport to represent actual losses in fair value we will incur nor does it consider the potential effect of favorable changes in market rates. It also does not represent the full extent of the possible loss that may occur. Actual future gains and losses will differ from those estimated because of changes or differences in market rates and interrelationships, hedging instruments and hedge percentages, timing and other factors.
The estimated maximum one-day loss in fair value on our foreign currency sensitive derivative financial instruments, derived using the VaR model, was $107 million and $57 million as of May 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The VaR increased year-over-year as a result of an increase in foreign currency volatilities as well as increased trade volumes as of May 31, 2025. Such a hypothetical loss in the fair value of our derivatives would be offset by increases in the value of the underlying transactions being hedged. The average monthly change in the fair values of foreign currency forward and foreign currency option derivative instruments was $200 million and $180 million during fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2024, respectively.
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The instruments not included in the VaR are intercompany loans denominated in non-functional currencies, fixed interest rate U.S. Dollar denominated debt, and interest rate swaps. Intercompany loans and related interest amounts are eliminated in consolidation. Furthermore, our non-functional currency intercompany loans are substantially hedged against foreign exchange risk through the use of forward contracts, which are included in the VaR calculation above. Therefore, we consider the interest rate and foreign currency market risks associated with our non-functional currency intercompany loans to be immaterial to our consolidated financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
Details of third-party debt and interest rate swaps are provided in the table below. The table presents principal cash flows and related weighted average interest rates by expected maturity dates. The weighted average variable interest rates for the fixed rate swapped to variable rate swaps reflect the effective interest rates at May 31, 2025.
EXPECTED MATURITY DATE YEAR ENDING MAY 31,
(Dollars in millions)
2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 THEREAFTER TOTAL FAIR VALUE
Interest Rate Risk
Long-term U.S. Dollar debt — Fixed rate
Principal payments $ — $ 2,000 $ — $ — $ 1,500 $ 4,500 $ 8,000 $ 6,673
Average interest rate 0.0 % 2.6 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 2.9 % 3.5 % 3.1 %
Interest Rate Swaps — Fixed rate swapped to variable rate
Notional amount $ — $ — $ — $ — $ — $ 2,400 $ 2,400 $ 21
Average fixed interest rate 0.0 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 3.6 % 3.6 %
Average variable interest rate 0.0 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 3.8 % 3.8 %
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