An Assessment of Currency Exposure of Non-Financial Firms in ASEAN-4: Insights using the Stock Returns and Cash Flow Methodologies

Abstract

This study examines the extent and nature of foreign exchange exposure in 405 listed corporations operating in the ASEAN-4 nations, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. The study period of 23 years, from 1995 to 2017, covers the two major crisis periods, the Asian financial crisis (AFC) of 1997 and the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008. Our study improves on earlier work by using two alternative assessment methods, i.e., stock returns (SR) and cash flow (CF) methods. We report several interesting and noteworthy results. First, we find that the stock returns approach results in a higher incidence of exchange rate exposure relative to the cash flow method. Specifically, about 65% and 28% of the total ASEAN-4 firms had significant exposure to all currencies under the stock returns and cash flow methods, respectively. Second, we find the sample firms to have predominant exposure to the US dollar, signifying the important role played by the United States (US) as the major trading partner of the ASEAN-4. Third, when evaluating time-varying exposure, we find that the incidence of the exchange rate exposure is event-specific. Most of our sample firms were highly exposed to exchange rates during the mid-points of the AFC and the GFC.