We consider firms that,all else equal,wish to minimize variability in their internal
capital(due to convex costs of raising external funds).The firms can hedge the cash flow
risk of the project,but not that of winning or losing the auction.We characterize optimal
hedging and bidding strategies in this competition framework.We show that access to
financial markets makes firms bid more aggressively, possibly even above their
valuation for the project. In addition,hedging increases the variance of bids and makes
firm values more dispersed.Further,with hedging,the covariance of internal capital
changes with the risk factor is negative,and is more negative,the higher the correlation
of the hedging instrument with the risk factor