Caterpillar Inc. Taps the Chinese Bond Market

Abstract

An MBA graduate prepares for a possible interview with Caterpillar Inc. by reading about the company's longtime presence in China manufacturing heavy equipment and its continued optimism about the heavy equipment market in that country. He also learns that the company financed part of its operations and growth in China by issuing bonds in Hong Kong and wonders whether the company would return to that bond market in Hong Kong. Excerpt UVA-C-2418 May 9, 2019 Caterpillar Inc. Taps the Chinese Bond Market It was spring 2019, and Mark Denoso eagerly anticipated the possibility of interviewing for a position in the office of the CFO at Caterpillar Inc. (Caterpillar). He had invested much time and energy getting his master's of business administration (MBA) from a top US business school and was eager to put his degree to work. Caterpillar would be the ideal place. Denoso fondly recalled his many hours spent in the open fields next to the house where he grew up, using his toy excavators, bulldozers, front loaders, and other equipment in the small construction sites he had created in and around the dirt and rocks in those fields. He had always dreamed of working construction, and, after obtaining his undergraduate degree in civil engineering, had landed the job as project engineer at a large construction firm; however after two years in that role, he was impatient to see his career progress, so he had returned to school to obtain his MBA. Now he was looking for a job opportunity that would combine his love of construction and his newly acquired business skills. In preparation for a possible interview, Denoso had read extensively about Caterpillar. He was intrigued with the company's longtime presence in China manufacturing heavy equipment and its continued optimism about the heavy equipment market in that country. He had also learned that the company had financed part of its operations and growth in China by issuing bonds in Hong Kong. He wondered whether the company would return to the bond market in Hong Kong again. . . .