| h) | Derivative financial instruments |
(i) Derivative Financial Instruments - The Company enters into a variety of derivative financial instruments to manage its exposure to interest rate and foreign exchange rate risks, including foreign exchange forward contracts, interest rate swaps, currency swaps and zero cost collar contracts. The Company’s policy is to enter into derivatives contracts only for economic hedging purposes and there are no instruments with speculation objectives.
Derivatives are initially recognized at fair value at the date the derivative contracts are entered into and are subsequently re-measured at fair value at the end of each reporting period. The resulting gain or loss is recognized in profit or loss unless the derivative is designated as a hedging instrument and complies with hedge accounting requirements of IAS 39, in which event the timing of the recognition in profit or loss depends on the nature of the hedge relationship.
(ii) Embedded derivatives - The Company assesses the existence of embedded derivatives in financial instrument contracts. Derivatives embedded in non-derivative host contracts are treated as separate derivatives when they meet the definition of a derivative, their risks and characteristics are not closely related to those of the host contracts and the contracts are not measured at FVTPL as a whole. Arauco has determined that no embedded derivatives currently exist.
(iii) Hedge accounting - The Company designates certain hedging instruments as either fair value hedges or cash flow hedges.
At the inception of the hedge relationship, the entity documents the relationship between the hedging instrument and the hedged item, along with its risk management objectives and its strategy for undertaking various hedge transactions. Furthermore, at the inception of the hedge and on an ongoing basis, Arauco documents whether the hedging instrument is highly effective in offsetting changes in fair values or cash flows of the hedged item attributable to the hedged risk.
-Fair Value Hedges under IAS 39- Changes in the fair value of derivatives that are designated and qualify as fair value hedges are recognized in profit or loss immediately, together with any changes in the fair value of the hedged asset or liability that are attributable to the hedged risk. The change in the fair value of the hedging instrument and the change in the hedged item attributable to the hedged risk are recognized in profit or loss in the line item relating to the hedged item.
-Cash flow hedges under IAS 39 - The effective portion of changes in the fair value of derivatives that are designated and qualify as cash flow hedges is recognized in other comprehensive income and accumulated under the heading of cash flow hedging reserve. The gain or loss relating to the ineffective portion is recognized immediately in profit or loss, and is included in the Finance costs line item in the consolidated statement of profit or loss. Amounts previously recognized in other comprehensive income are reclassified to profit or loss in the periods when the hedged item affects profit or loss, in the same line as the recognized hedged item.
Hedge accounting is discontinued when the Group revokes the hedging relationship, when the hedging instrument expires or is sold, terminated, or exercised, or when it no longer qualifies for hedge accounting. Any gain or loss recognized in other comprehensive income and accumulated in equity at that time remains in equity and is recognized when the forecasted transaction is ultimately recognized in profit or loss. When a forecasted transaction is no longer expected to occur, the gain or loss accumulated in equity is recognized immediately in profit or loss.
