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Financial Instruments, Derivatives and Hedging Activities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Financial Instruments, Derivatives and Hedging Activities

Financial Instruments, Derivatives and Hedging Activities

NOTE 6 – Financial Instruments, Derivatives and Hedging Activities

The Company is exposed to market risk stemming from changes in commodity prices (primarily corn and natural gas), foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates. In the normal course of business, the Company actively manages its exposure to these market risks by entering into various hedging transactions, authorized under established policies that place controls on these activities. These transactions utilize exchange-traded derivatives or over-the-counter derivatives with investment grade counterparties. Derivative financial instruments currently used by the Company consist of commodity-related futures, options, and swap contracts, foreign currency-related forward contracts, and interest rate swaps.

Commodity price hedging: The Company’s principal use of derivative financial instruments is to manage commodity price risk relating to anticipated purchases of corn and natural gas to be used in the manufacturing process, generally over the next 12 to 24 months. The Company maintains a commodity-price risk management strategy that uses derivative instruments to minimize significant, unanticipated earnings fluctuations caused by commodity-price volatility. To manage price risk related to corn purchases primarily in North America, the Company uses corn futures and option contracts that trade on regulated commodity exchanges to lock-in corn costs associated with fixed-priced customer sales contracts. The Company also uses over-the-counter natural gas swaps in North America to hedge a portion of its natural gas usage. These derivative financial instruments limit the impact that volatility resulting from fluctuations in market prices will have on corn and natural gas purchases. The Company’s natural gas derivatives and the majority of its corn derivatives have been designated as cash flow hedging instruments.

The Company enters into certain corn derivative instruments that are not designated as hedging instruments as defined by ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging. Therefore, the realized and unrealized gains and losses from these instruments are recognized in cost of sales during each accounting period. These derivative instruments also mitigate commodity price risk related to anticipated purchases of corn.

For commodity hedges designated as cash flow hedges, unrealized gains and losses associated with marking the commodity hedging contracts to market (fair value) are recorded as a component of other comprehensive income (“OCI”) and included in the equity section of the Consolidated Balance Sheets as part of AOCI. These amounts are subsequently reclassified into earnings in the same line item affected by the hedged transaction and in the same period or periods during which the hedged transaction affects earnings, or in the month a hedge is determined to be ineffective. The Company assesses the effectiveness of a commodity hedge contract based on changes in the contract’s fair value. The changes in the market value of such contracts have historically been, and are expected to continue to be, highly effective at offsetting changes in the price of the hedged items. Gains and losses from cash flow hedging instruments reclassified from AOCI to earnings are reported as Cash provided by operating activities on the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

As of December 31, 2020, the Company had outstanding futures and option contracts that hedged the forecasted purchase of approximately 95 million bushels of corn, and outstanding swap and option contracts that hedged the forecasted purchase of approximately 33 million mmbtu’s of natural gas.

Foreign currency hedging: Due to the its global operations, including operations in many emerging markets, the Company is exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. As a result, the Company has exposure to translational foreign-exchange risk when the results of its foreign operations are translated to U.S. dollars and to transactional foreign-exchange risk when transactions not denominated in the functional currency are revalued. The Company’s foreign-exchange risk management strategy uses derivative financial instruments such as foreign currency forward contracts, swaps and options to manage its transactional foreign exchange risk. The Company enters into foreign currency derivative instruments that are designated as both cash flow hedging instruments as well as instruments not designated as hedging instruments as defined by ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging, in order to mitigate transactional foreign-exchange risk. Gains and losses from derivative financial instruments not designated as hedging instruments are marked to market in earnings during each accounting period.

The Company hedges certain assets using foreign currency derivatives not designated as hedging instruments, which had a notional value of $410 million and $621 million as of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. The Company also hedges certain liabilities using foreign currency derivatives not designated as hedging instruments, which had a notional value of $224 million and $356 million as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

The Company hedges certain assets using foreign currency cash flow hedging instruments, which had a notional value of $401 million and $374 million as of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. The Company also hedges certain liability positions using foreign currency cash flow hedging instruments, which had a notional value of $542 million and $541 million as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Interest rate hedging: The Company assesses its exposure to variability in interest rates by identifying and monitoring changes in interest rates that may adversely impact future cash flows and the fair value of existing debt instruments, and by evaluating hedging opportunities. The Company’s risk management strategy is to monitor interest rate risk attributable to both the Company’s outstanding and forecasted debt obligations as well as the Company’s offsetting hedge positions. Derivative financial instruments that have been used by the Company to manage its interest rate risk consist of interest rate swaps and T-Locks.

The Company periodically enters into interest rate swaps to hedge its exposure to interest rate changes. The changes in fair value of interest rate swaps designated as hedging instruments that effectively offset the variability in the fair value of outstanding debt obligations are reported in earnings. These amounts offset the gains or losses (the changes in fair value) of the hedged debt instruments that are attributable to changes in interest rates (the hedged risk), which are also recognized in earnings. As of December 31, 2020, the Company did not have any outstanding interest rate swaps. As of December 31, 2019, the Company had an outstanding interest rate swap agreement that converted the interest rates on $200 million of its $400 million 4.625% senior notes due November 1, 2020, to variable rates. The Company redeemed these notes in July 2020 and settled the outstanding interest rate swap.

The Company periodically enters into T-Locks to hedge its exposure to interest rate changes. The T-Locks are designated as hedges of the variability in cash flows associated with future interest payments caused by market fluctuations in the benchmark interest rate until the fixed interest rate is established, and are accounted for as cash flow hedges. Accordingly, changes in the fair value of the T-Locks are recorded to AOCI until the consummation of the underlying debt offering, at which time any realized gain (loss) is amortized to earnings over the life of the debt. During the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company entered into and settled T-Locks associated with the issuance of senior notes. The realized loss upon settlement of the T-Locks was recorded in AOCI and is amortized into earnings over the life of the senior notes. The Company did not have outstanding T-Locks as of December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020.

The derivative instruments designated as cash flow hedges included in AOCI as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 are reflected below:


Derivatives in Cash Flow Hedging Relationships	Amount of Gains (Losses) included in AOCI as of December 31,
(in millions)	2020		2019
Commodity contracts, net of income tax effect of $16 and $5, respectively	$	47	$	(11)
Foreign currency contracts, net of income tax effect of $— and $1, respectively		(1)		3
Interest rate contracts, net of income tax effect of $1 and $ —, respectively		(4)		(1)
Total	$	42	$	(9)

The fair value and balance sheet location of the Company’s derivative instruments, presented gross in the Consolidated Balance Sheets, are reflected below:


	Fair Value of Hedging Instruments as of December 31, 2020
	Designated Hedging Instruments (in millions)								Non-Designated Hedging Instruments (in millions)
Balance Sheet Location		Commodity Contracts		Foreign Currency Contracts		Interest Rate Contracts	Total			Commodity Contracts		Foreign Currency Contracts		Interest Rate Contracts	Total
Accounts receivable, net	$	50	$	7	$	—	$	57	$	3	$	4	$	—	$	7
Other assets		4		—		—		4		—		1		—		1
Assets		54		7		—		61		3		5		—		8
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities		4		12		—		16		1		8		—		9
Non-current liabilities		2		—		—		2		—		2		—		2
Liabilities		6		12		—		18		1		10		—		11
Net (Liabilities)/Assets	$	48	$	(5)	$	—	$	43	$	2	$	(5)	$	—	$	(3)


	Fair Value of Hedging Instruments as of December 31, 2019
	Designated Hedging Instruments (in millions)								Non-Designated Hedging Instruments (in millions)
Balance Sheet Location		Commodity Contracts		Foreign Currency Contracts		Interest Rate Contracts	Total			Commodity Contracts		Foreign Currency Contracts		Interest Rate Contracts	Total
Accounts receivable, net	$	5	$	7	$	—	$	12	$	2	$	4	$	—	$	6
Other assets		1		3		1		5		—		1		—		1
Assets		6		10		1		17		2		5		—		7
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities		13		4		—		17		1		8		—		9
Non-current liabilities		4		4		—		8		—		2		—		2
Liabilities		17		8		—		25		1		10		—		11
Net (Liabilities)/Assets	$	(11)	$	2	$	1	$	(8)	$	1	$	(5)	$	—	$	(4)

Additional information pertaining to the Company’s fair value hedges is presented below:


Line item in the statement of financial position in which the hedged item is included (in millions)	Carrying Amount of the Hedged Assets/(Liabilities)				Cumulative Amount of Fair Value Hedging Adjustment Included in the Carrying Amount of Hedged Assets/(Liabilities)
Balance sheet date as of	December 31, 2020		December 31, 2019		December 31, 2020		December 31, 2019
Interest Rate Contracts:
Long-Term Debt	$	—	$	(201)	$	—	$	(1)

Additional information relating to the Company’s derivative instruments is presented below:


Derivatives in Cash Flow Hedging Relationships	Gains (Losses) Recognized in OCI on Derivatives						Income Statement	Gains (Losses) Reclassified from AOCI into Income
(in millions)	Year Ended December 31,						Location	Year Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018			2020		2019		2018
Commodity contracts	$	17	$	(24)	$	8	Cost of sales	$	(62)	$	(12)	$	(6)
Foreign currency contracts		(7)		5		—	Net sales/cost of sales		(2)		—		1
Interest rate contracts		(5)		—		—	Financing costs, net		(1)		(2)		(1)
Total	$	5	$	(19)	$	8		$	(65)	$	(14)	$	(6)

Derivatives in Fair Value Hedging Relationships

Income Statement Location of Derivatives Designated as

Gains (Losses) Recognized in Income

Income Statement Location

Gains (Losses) Recognized in Income

(in millions)

Hedging Instruments

Year Ended December 31,

of Hedged Items

Year Ended December 31,

2020

2019

2018

2020

2019

2018

Interest rate contracts

Financing costs, net

(1)

(2)

Financing costs, net

(2)

As of December 31, 2020, AOCI included $44 million of net gains (net of income taxes of $15 million) on T-Locks, foreign currency hedges, and commodities-related derivative instruments designated as cash flow hedges that are expected to be reclassified into earnings during the next 12 months.

Fair Value Measurements: Presented below are the fair values of the Company’s financial instruments and derivatives as of the dates presented:


	As of December 31, 2020								As of December 31, 2019
(in millions)	Total		Level 1 (a)		Level 2 (b)		Level 3 (c)		Total		Level 1 (a)		Level 2 (b)		Level 3 (c)
Available for sale securities	$	11	$	11	$	—	$	—	$	13	$	13	$	—	$	—
Derivative assets		69		53		16		—		24		7		17		—
Derivative liabilities		29		3		26		—		36		5		31		—
Long-term debt		1,751		—		1,751		—		1,751		—		1,751		—

(a)

Level 1 inputs consist of quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

(b)

Level 2 inputs are inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly for substantially the full term of the financial instrument. Level 2 inputs are based on quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active, or inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability or can be derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data.

(c)

Level 3 inputs are unobservable inputs for the asset or liability. Unobservable inputs are used to measure fair value to the extent that observable inputs are not available, thereby allowing for situations in which there is little, if any, market activity for the asset or liability at the measurement date.

The carrying values of cash equivalents, short-term investments, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and short-term borrowings approximate fair values. Commodity futures, options, and swap contracts are recognized at fair value. Foreign currency forward contracts, swaps, and options are also recognized at fair value. The fair value of the Company’s Long-term debt is estimated based on quotations of major securities dealers who are market makers in the securities. As of December 31, 2020, the carrying value and fair value of the Company’s Long-term debt was approximately $1.8 billion.