An IBEX35 company with significant exposure to energy prices needed to understand and validate, with an external and independent view, how a series of energy-linked swaps had been structured and contracted. The assignment was not intended to “recount” the contract, but to clearly explain what was signed, why it made economic sense, and how its operation should be interpreted.
The main challenge was that it was not a single, simple product: the portfolio included several swaps, and also, swaps with different underlyings coexisted, which requires adapting the analysis to each type and avoiding “copied and pasted” conclusions. This heterogeneity is precisely where misunderstandings often arise: when each party pays, which variable governs each settlement, and what the correct interpretation of the economic result is.
At martinsdelima, we approached the case with a guiding idea: to convert financial complexity into understandable decisions. Therefore, the report was designed so that any management or finance team could follow it without being a specialist, maintaining technical rigor and, at the same time, bringing it down to earth with diagrams and data traceability.
From there, we structured the work as a complete validation of the “life cycle” of the hedge:
(i) what was contracted,
(ii) how each leg worked, and
(iii) whether the agreed conditions were consistent with the usual market practice at the time of contracting.
A particularly relevant point was to focus on the economic logic of the hedge: to clearly distinguish the fixed leg (agreed price) and the variable leg (expected market price) and explain how they are correctly compared when the underlying is delivered in the future.
The result was a document that is not limited to “giving a number”, but organizes the technical narrative, makes clear which variables determine each calculation, and offers an executive reading: what was covered, how it was valued, and what conclusions can be drawn based on verifiable market information.
We applied a standard market valuation methodology: we projected future cash flows for each swap with observable prices at the time of contracting. For electricity, we used market futures; and for natural gas, a set of market references (futures and spot of the reference underlying, exchange rate, and forward rates), always with data known at that date.
On these flows, we calculated the present value of each leg using public reference discount factors, following the usual practice for derivatives, and resolved maturities not directly available by interpolation between nearby points on the curve. This ensures mathematical consistency and comparability with professional valuations.
With this basis, we were able to clearly demonstrate that the agreed fixed prices were consistent with the market future prices at the time of signing, that is, that the contract was aligned with what is usually observed in well-structured hedging operations.
In terms of the value of the work, the impact was twofold: on the one hand, technical peace of mind (robust and defensible valuation); on the other hand, management capacity (clear and actionable explanation to improve internal monitoring of hedges). In summary, martinsdelima delivered an extraordinarily rigorous, traceable, and understandable analysis, which converted a complex portfolio of derivatives into a clear conclusion: reasonable structure, transparent methodology, and alignment with the market.