17. Financial Instruments and Risk Management

The company employs established risk management policies and procedures, which seek to reduce the company’s commercial risk exposure to fluctuations in commodity prices, interest rates, currency exchange rates and prices of the company’s common stock with regard to common share repurchases and the company’s deferred compensation stock plan. However, there can be no assurance these policies and procedures will be successful. Although the instruments utilized involve varying degrees of credit, market and interest risk, the counterparties to the agreements are expected to perform fully under the terms of the agreements. The company monitors counterparty credit risk, including lenders, on a regular basis, but Ball cannot be certain that all risks will be discerned or that its risk management policies and procedures will always be effective. Additionally, in the event of default under the company’s master derivative agreements, the non-defaulting party has the option to offset any amounts owed with regard to open derivative positions.

Commodity Price Risk

Aluminum

The company manages commodity price risk in connection with market price fluctuations of aluminum ingot through two different methods. First, the company enters into container sales contracts that include aluminum ingot-based pricing terms that generally reflect the same price fluctuations under commercial purchase contracts for aluminum sheet. The terms include fixed, floating or pass-through aluminum ingot component pricing. Second, the company uses certain derivative instruments such as option and forward contracts as economic and cash flow hedges of commodity price risk where there are material differences between sales and purchase contracted pricing and volume.

At March 31, 2017, the company had aluminum contracts limiting its aluminum exposure with notional amounts of approximately $748 million, of which approximately $680 million received hedge accounting treatment. The aluminum contracts, which are recorded at fair value, include economic derivative instruments that are undesignated, as well as cash flow hedges that offset sales and purchase contracts of various terms and lengths. Cash flow hedges relate to forecasted transactions that will occur within the next three years. Included in shareholders’ equity at March 31, 2017, within accumulated other comprehensive earnings (loss), is a net after-tax gain of $51 million associated with these contracts. A net after-tax gain of $36 million is expected to be recognized in the consolidated statement of earnings during the next 12 months, the majority of which will be offset by pricing changes in sales and purchase contracts, thus resulting in little or no earnings impact to Ball.

Steel

Most sales contracts involving our steel products either include provisions permitting the company to pass through some or all steel cost changes incurred, or they incorporate annually negotiated steel prices.

Interest Rate Risk

The company’s objective in managing exposure to interest rate changes is to minimize the impact of interest rate changes on earnings and cash flows and to lower our overall borrowing costs. To achieve these objectives, the company may use a variety of interest rate swaps, collars and options to manage our mix of floating and fixed-rate debt. Interest rate instruments held by the company at March 31, 2017, included pay-fixed interest rate swaps with notional amounts of approximately $500 million, which effectively convert variable rate obligations to fixed-rate instruments. There was no after-tax gain included in shareholders’ equity at March 31, 2017, within accumulated other comprehensive earnings (loss). The contracts outstanding at March 31, 2017, expire within the next twelve months.

Currency Exchange Rate Risk

The company’s objective in managing exposure to currency fluctuations is to limit the exposure of cash flows and earnings from changes associated with currency exchange rate changes through the use of various derivative contracts. In addition, at times the company manages earnings translation volatility through the use of currency option strategies, and the change in the fair value of those options is recorded in the company’s net earnings. The company’s currency translation risk results from the currencies in which we transact business. The company faces currency exposures in our global operations as a result of various factors including intercompany currency denominated loans, selling our products in various currencies, purchasing raw materials and equipment in various currencies and tax exposures not denominated in the functional currency. Sales contracts are negotiated with customers to reflect cost changes and, where there is not an exchange pass-through arrangement, the company uses forward and option contracts to manage currency exposures. At March 31, 2017, the company had outstanding exchange rate forward contracts and option contracts with notional amounts totaling approximately $1.4 billion. Approximately $2 million of net after-tax loss related to these contracts is included in accumulated other comprehensive earnings at March 31, 2017, of which a net gain of less than $1 million is expected to be recognized in the unaudited condensed consolidated statement of earnings during the next 12 months. The contracts outstanding at March 31, 2017, expire within the next two years.

Additionally, the company entered into a $1 billion cross-currency swap contract to partially mitigate the risk associated with foreign currency denominated intercompany debt incurred in the second quarter of 2016. Approximately, $13 million of net after-tax loss related to this contract is included in accumulated other comprehensive earnings at March 31, 2017, none of which is expected to be recognized in the unaudited condensed consolidated statement of earnings during the next 12 months. As of March 31, 2017, the fair value of the cross-currency swap was a $27 million gain. The contract expires in December 2020.

Common Stock Price Risk

The company’s deferred compensation stock program is subject to variable plan accounting and, accordingly, is marked to fair value using the company’s closing stock price at the end of the related reporting period. The company entered into total return swaps to reduce the company’s earnings exposure to these fair value fluctuations that will be outstanding until March 2018 and August 2017 and that have a combined notional value of 1.3 million shares. Based on the current number of shares in the program, each $1 change in the company’s stock price has an insignificant impact on pretax earnings, net of the impact of related derivatives. As of March 31, 2017, the fair value of the swap was a $1 million loss.

Collateral Calls

The company’s agreements with its financial counterparties require the company to post collateral in certain circumstances when the negative mark to fair value of the derivative contracts exceeds specified levels. Additionally, the company has collateral posting arrangements with certain customers on these derivative contracts. The cash flows of the margin calls are shown within the investing section of the company’s consolidated statements of cash flows. As of March 31, 2017, and December 31, 2016, the aggregate fair value of all derivative instruments with credit-risk-related contingent features that were in a net liability position were $27 million and $44 million, respectively, and no collateral was required to be posted.

Fair Value Measurements

The company has classified all applicable financial derivative assets and liabilities as Level 2 within the fair value hierarchy as of March 31, 2017, and December 31, 2016, and presented those values in the tables below. The company’s assessment of the significance of a particular input to the fair value measurement requires judgment and may affect the valuation of fair value assets and liabilities and their placement within the fair value hierarchy levels.


	March 31, 2017						December 31, 2016
($ in millions)	Derivatives Designated as Hedging Instruments		Derivatives not Designated as Hedging Instruments		Total		Derivatives Designated as Hedging Instruments		Derivatives not Designated as Hedging Instruments		Total

Assets:
Commodity contracts	$	63	$	3	$	66	$	17	$	1	$	18
Foreign currency contracts		—		21		21		1		—		1
Interest rate and other contracts		—		—		—		—		21		21
Total current derivative contracts	$	63	$	24	$	87	$	18	$	22	$	40

Commodity contracts	$	15	$	—	$	15	$	7	$	—	$	7
Foreign currency contracts		1		—		1		—		—		—
Interest rate and other contracts		27		—		27		39		—		39
Total noncurrent derivative contracts	$	43	$	—	$	43	$	46	$	—	$	46

Liabilities:
Commodity contracts	$	14	$	1	$	15	$	3	$	—	$	3
Foreign currency contracts		—		5		5		—		22		22
Interest rate and other contracts		—		1		1		—		—		—
Total current derivative contracts	$	14	$	7	$	21	$	3	$	22	$	25

The company uses closing spot and forward market prices as published by the London Metal Exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Reuters and Bloomberg to determine the fair value of any outstanding aluminum, currency, energy, inflation and interest rate spot and forward contracts. Option contracts are valued using a Black-Scholes model with observable market inputs for aluminum, currency and interest rates. We value each of our financial instruments either internally using a single valuation technique or from a reliable observable market source. The company does not adjust the value of its financial instruments except in determining the fair value of a trade that settles in the future by discounting the value to its present value using 12-month LIBOR as the discount factor. Ball performs validations of our internally derived fair values reported for our financial instruments on a quarterly basis utilizing counterparty valuation statements. Additionally, the company evaluates counterparty creditworthiness and, as of March 31, 2017, has not identified any circumstances requiring the reported values of our financial instruments be adjusted.

The following table provides the effects of derivative instruments in the consolidated statement of earnings and on accumulated other comprehensive earnings (loss):


		Three Months Ended March 31,
		2017				2016
($ in millions)	Location of Gain (Loss) Recognized in Earnings on Derivatives	Cash Flow Hedge - Reclassified Amount from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Earnings (Loss)		Gain (Loss) on Derivatives not Designated as Hedge Instruments		Cash Flow Hedge - Reclassified Amount from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Earnings (Loss)		Gain (Loss) on Derivatives not Designated as Hedge Instruments

Commodity contracts - manage exposure to customer pricing	Net sales	$	(3)	$	—	$	3	$	—
Commodity contracts - manage exposure to supplier pricing	Cost of sales		8		—		(7)		—
Interest rate contracts - manage exposure for forecasted Rexam financing	Debt refinancing and other costs		—		—		—		(16)
Foreign currency contracts - manage general exposure with the business	Selling, general and administrative		—		(15)		(1)		—
Foreign currency contracts - manage exposure for acquisition of Rexam	Business consolidation and other activities		3		—		—		(88)
Cross-currency swaps - manage exposure for acquisition of Rexam	Business consolidation and other activities		—		—		—		(36)
Cross-currency swaps - manage intercompany currency exposure within the business	Selling, general and administrative		(17)		—		—		—
Equity contracts	Selling, general and administrative		—		(2)		—		(2)
Total		$	(9)	$	(17)	$	(5)	$	(142)

The changes in accumulated other comprehensive earnings (loss) for effective derivatives were as follows:


	Three Months Ended March 31,
($ in millions)	2017		2016

Amounts reclassified into earnings:
Commodity contracts	$	(5)	$	4
Cross currency swap contracts		17		—
Currency exchange contracts		(3)		1
Change in fair value of cash flow hedges:
Commodity contracts		51		(6)
Interest rate contracts		—		(2)
Cross currency swap contracts		(12)		—
Currency exchange contracts		3		3
Foreign currency and tax impacts		6		—
	$	57	$	—