Last year as 2,000 treasury professionals gathered in Vienna for the 16th EuroFinance International, the credit crunch was just beginning to unfold. No one could have predicted just how badly it would impact the financial system. Most companies remained reasonably confident about business at that point, although credit issues were climbing up the agenda.
Of course, that was in September when reported losses by the banks were still scant rather than the estimated billions written down now. And Northern Rock looked like the lone bank player that made a fundamental error by breaking a cardinal lending rule.
With headlines on the crisis still dominating the world over, how much more is coming your way? At the time of going to press, the US had moved into recession; the dollar was in the troughs; and sterling was taking a battering against the euro. Our own surveys show more doom and gloom from the many corporate treasurers we have interviewed in our research since the last annual event.
But whether this pessimism will be a distant memory by October, one thing is completely clear. Such crises bring home the point that treasurers can never be too careful with their liquidity and risks to it. This year’s programme will enable you to manage liquidity, risk and capital through the ups and downs. Choose from 80+ high-level, corporate case studies and sessions with a strong theme of liquidity and risk. In addition, benefit from three days and three nights of networking, knowledge and a no-nonsense approach to making sure your time is maximised.
What’s new: highlights of The International 2008
Opening keynote panel: A year in the life of liquidity. Hear from Google and Lenovo on how treasury is managing funding and investments in this volatile environment.
Investment guru Mark Mobius tells you where to put your money in 2009.
World famous Rogue trader Nick Leeson on why betting the bank will happen again and again.
Bye bye banks: Credit woes, new third party competitors and continued mergers. Will your bank be around next year?
Are we finally seeing treasury mimic new business models?
The good, the bad and the ugly of financial supply chain management: Are your banks conning you?
SEVEN New Streams:
Building centres of excellence
FX extreme
Squeezing out more from your shared service centres
The 2009 treasury agenda: Key topics for the coming year
Supply chain interactive: Games, speed dating and more
Asset management clinic: Finding and protecting yield
AND back by popular demand, streams on risk, country and regional workshops, global liquidity, and funding.
Confirmed speakers include:
Nick Leeson (Ireland)
Brent Callinicos, Global Treasurer, Google, (USA)
Damien Glendinning, Global Treasurer, Lenovo, (China)
Andrés Gárcia Peralbo, Treasury Director, Inditex (Spain)
Andrey Rostovsky, Head of Treasury, OAO Lukoil (Russia)
Aidan Claire, Group Treasurer, Tetra Laval (Switzerland)
Christian Pullola, Group Treasurer, Nokia (Finland)
Hans Van den Bosch, Head of Treasury Operations, Unilever (Netherlands)
Paul Jonckheere, Treasury Project Coordinator, Carrefour (France)
Darsh Johal, Shell (UK)
Bob Garnett, Board Member, IASB (UK)
To view this programme in full, please click on the relevant day and subject category to see the session descriptions.
09:10 A year in the life of liquidity and risk After a sustained period of excess liquidity in the market and cheap money, the sub-prime
mortgage turmoil in the financial markets resulted in external sources of liquidity drying
up or becoming prohibitively expensive for many companies. Investment policies and
yield also came under fire as money moved to safer havens and the board asked searching
questions on the safety of underlying assets.
A range of other factors apart from the current
credit crisis has also impacted companies: interest rate changes influenced by the Fed; the
growing strength of the euro against the dollar, sterling and yen, and the surge in oil prices
to name but a few. Hear from this exclusive panel who kept records during the year on their
decision making in light of interest rate and currency shifts; inflation figures and recession
fears; and as oil prices climbed relentlessly over 100 dollars a barrel. As credit tightened
and markets moved in and out of turmoil, how did treasury respond? What were the trends
coming out during the year and did this environment change corporate and treasury
behaviour?
As most experts agree that access to capital will be continue to be a key concern
of treasurers in the coming months, how are companies coping? What plans are they
putting into place with regards to working capital, funding and investment? This panel from
various regions (Europe, the USA and Asia) and varying industries will speak about these
issues and more. Meanwhile we asked corporate treasurers from around the world to keep
track of factors affecting working capital and how increasing market turbulence influenced
their policies on payables, receivables, inventory, working capital requirements and use of
surplus funds. These results will also be reported during the session alongside audience
voting to allow you to benchmark and voice your liquidity and risk concerns.
Moderated by:
Brian Stevenson, Head of GTS, RBS, UK
Panellists include:
Brent Callinicos, Treasurer, Google, USA
Michael Schuller, Corporate Finance Director, Groupe Eurotunnel, UK
Andrés Garcia Peralbo, Director Treasury, Inditex, Spain
Damian Glendinning, VP & Treasurer, Lenovo, Singapore
Andrey Rostovsky, Deputy Head Group Treasury, OAO LUKOIL, Russia
Treasury profile: Google Industry: Technology
Annual turnover in euros: 13 billion
Number of treasury employees: 23
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes (several)
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
Groupe Eurotunnel Industry: Transport/infrastructure
Annual turnover in euros: 775 million
Number of treasury employees: 6
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: No
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
OAO LUKOIL
Industry: Oil and gas exploration
Annual turnover in euros: 50 billion approx
Number of treasury employees: 61
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: No
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
Lenovo
Industry: Information technology
Annual turnover in euros: 10 billion
Number of treasury employees: 30 (treasury operations and funding)
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Fully centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
Inditex Industry: Industria de diseño Textil S.A
Annual turnover in euros: 9.4 million
Number of treasury employees: 10
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised - decissions and financing. Cash decentralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: No
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
10:10 Let’s hear you out: the audience opinion
Last year corporate treasurers in Vienna cast their votes on everything from business
outlook to their use of various treasury structures and solutions, giving you an unrivalled
view of trends shaping the treasury world. From trust in your rating agencies and banks
to business confidence and outlook, what do you really think? Which country do you find
most challenging for treasury operations? Through FX issues to regulation, this short
survey will let you benchmark where your treasury sits against your peers. The survey
will cover all the main themes of the event and therefore help guide you through the
programme to find the most appropriate sessions over your three days in Barcelona.
11:30 What the experts say: money and markets in 2009
For companies with significant dollar exposure, the US currency’s long decline has created
a set of increasing dilemmas. Firstly, and most obviously, is the end in sight? While some
treasurers are talking of the loss of the dollar’s standing as the global reserve currency, others
are buying options on the currency in case it is has reached its bottom. At the same time,
emerging market currencies that have performed strongly against the US unit (sometimes
allowing companies to avoid having to find rare market or natural hedges) look less of a
one-way bet – at a time when companies have never been more exposed to them and
emerging market political risks are rising too. So what is the outlook for each of these crucial
currency areas? Where should investments go? What market dynamics are expected to shape
the financial world in the coming 12 to 18 months? Hear from some of the world’s leading
experts on the dollar, emerging markets currencies and broader investment trends for 2009.
Speaker:
Mark Mobius, Managing Director, Templeton Asset Management, Singapore
12:10 6th annual Award for Treasury Excellence
This year’s annual Award for Treasury Excellence goes to a market driver in cash and treasury management that is transforming the approach to traditional treasury models. The company is a worldwide industry leader with a large geographic reach in Europe and beyond, with large volumes of transaction and challenges that many other companies face. From their next generation SSC to their forward thinking approach to supply chain issues and procurement based on one single ERP platform, this treasury is implementing the dream for many companies of an integrated treasury that drives business value. How can leading-edge technology, such as in-house banking and unified ERP systems, as well as standardised financial processes and SEPA, enable corporate treasuries to significantly reduce complexity? What are the key elements to further improve working capital management, supply chain finance opportunities and provide more effective FX management on a global scale?
14:15 The Greenfield treasury
They get to meetings on scooters, have free
smoothies and candy on offer in the offices, and
live in an environment that positively encourages
creative risk-taking from product development
through to sales. But someone has to be the grown
up in the company and here is where treasury steps
in. Although someone has to enforce the rules
and mind the money, treasury has also been given
a blank slate. Like elsewhere in the company’s
development, without legacy policies and systems
it can skip the more traditional steps and leapfrog
straight to a world class structure. This has meant a
jump from 7 to what will soon be 40-50 in treasury
staff, and the introduction of best practice systems
and procedures. Here is the Google story. What
fun for an incoming treasurer! But even if you don’t
have the same freedom, flexibility and budget,
there are some interesting insights to be gained.
• Starting from scratch: a road map
• Developing critical performance indicators
for treasury
• Never, never outsource intellect
Speaker
Brent Callinicos, Treasurer, Google, USA
15:15 Building a standardised and
simplified treasury
Shell has a global operation spanning 130
countries that includes some of the world’s least
accessible locations. With a centralised approach
and a defined cash management strategy, Shell’s
treasury continues to deliver efficiency gains to
the organisation and remains at the forefront of
treasury innovation. One of the key foundations
of Shell’s vision is process standardisation and
simplification.
• Framework for a world class treasury
• Building blocks for standardisation and
simplification
• A primary bank model
• Lessons learned and practical steps to meet
strategy
• Integrating truly global collections
Speakers
Darsh Johal, Head of Global Cash Management,
Shell, UK
Peter Langshaw, Managing Director, Industry
Head, PECM (Power, Energy, Chemicals and
Mining), EMEA Global Transaction Services, Citi, UK
16:40 Payment factories: the heart of disciplined
cash flow management
When Inbev, the Belgian brewer with a turnover
of 14.4 billion euro and operating in 32 countries,
embarked on a payment factory solution, they were
looking to centralise payables for Western Europe
and several countries in the CEE region. Not only
were they hoping to reduce external costs related
to cash management and treasury as well as the
complexity of their AP structure, but were ultimately
also looking for a solution which would optimise their
working capital. Inbev maintains a growth strategy
so the payment factory needed to be flexible to allow
for further expansion as the company grows.
• Objectives for the payment factory
• Main lessons: stumbling blocks encountered and
how they were solved
• Implementation of the payment factory:
a disciplined approach to achieve targets
• The shared service centre
• The next step: creation of an overlay structure
• Tangible benefits
InBev SA Industry: Beverages
Annual turnover in euros: 17 billion
Number of treasury employees: 8
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Regionalised, centralised for some activities
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
17:20 Extraordinary in-house banking
In-house banks are popular with companies who
want to use internal monies to fund and invest
on behalf of their subsidiaries. Although in-house
banks may seem part of the furniture these days,
there are new tools and innovations driving
companies to make better use of in-house bank
capabilities. This session will look at benefits of
the in-house bank and show how it can be taken
to the next level to sit within a broader cash
management, liquidity and risk strategy.
• How the in-house bank adds value to treasury
• The in-house bank and liquidity
• New innovations and tools
• Assessing and benchmarking benefits
Speakers
Daniel Robrechts, Corporate Treasurer, Deutsche Post AG, Germany
Olle Malmgren, Senior Vice President of Global Product Solutions, Bank of America, UK
14:15 Are your FX capabilities up to scratch?
What works for you in foreign exchange and
how does it differ from your peers? Look around
you. How do you model your foreign exchange
exposures? How has IFRS changed the way
you structure your hedging policies? Evidence
shows that foreign exchange derivatives remain
dominated by forex swaps and forwards. These
simple instruments account for 90% of average
daily turnover in the market according to the latest
BIS survey. Exoticism just hasn’t caught on. With
boards running scared of derivatives, how do you
approach them?
• Treasury’s role: profit making or risk protection?
• Your exposures – how best to model them
• Active vs. passive foreign exchange treasury
• Benchmarking against your peers
EuroFinance surveyed European treasurers to find
out how you benchmark your foreign exchange
activity. Do you treat foreign exchange as an asset
class? Do you construct basket-based indices? Has
the current currency market affected how you will
look at your currency mix in the future? Our panel
will also discuss this outcome and ask the audience
to vote and share views.
Speaker
Lane Silverman, European Corporate Treasurer, Bunge, Switzerland
Britta Doettger, Group Treasurer, SGL CARBON, Germany
Treasury profile:
SGL Group Industry: Graphite
Annual turnover in euros: 1.6 billion
Number of treasury employees:
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Overall net debt position
15:15 Where next for IAS 39?
IAS 39 has been deeply unpopular with companies
and many feel its requirement to mark derivatives
to market assumes that treasurers are traders and
ignores that the use of derivatives is part of a broad
corporate risk management strategy. The standard
setters recognise that IAS 39 is imperfect and have
been working with treasury professionals in an
attempt to find a solution for a new and improved
version. This snapshot session will give a brief update
on the regulators’ response to the need for change.
Speakers
Bob Garnett, Board Member, International
Accounting Standards Board, UK
Sebastian di Paola, Partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Switzerland
16:40 Fun with functional currencies
Is changing functional currency an effective
response to shifts in currency markets and
does it provide a good enough natural hedge
to make matters worthwhile? A company that
has undertaken a change in reference currency
discusses the reasons, benefits and pitfalls.
What are the triggers to shift your functional
or presentational currency: SEPA, dollar moves,
customer demand or providing a natural hedge?
When is the right time? Are there good reasons to
avoid it?
• Feasibility studies
• IFRS implications of functional currency changes
• Triggers and timing
• Determining the currency that most influences
sales prices and operating costs
• What difference does it make?
Speaker
Neil Peacock, Country Treasurer, Alstom,
Switzerland
Patrick Mosimann, Project Manager, Alstom, Switzerland
17:20 Dollar doldrums? Dollar despair: the plight
of the dollar
Headlines scream of high oil prices – denominated
in dollars – and at the same time the dollar
wallows in the doldrums. It’s a strange paradox.
How does, and should, the value of the dollar
affect companies around the world? With most
commodities priced in dollars, what does the fate
of the greenback do to you? Behind the headlines
lie worries about the tectonic shifts in the world
economy. In April 2007, the dollar was involved
in 86% of all spot foreign exchange transactions,
down from over 90% in 2001, according to the BIS.
On the face of it, it’s not fundamentally changed
much in decades. The currency of international
bond issuance, meanwhile, is fairly evenly split
between dollars and euro. Does it really matter to
corporate treasury?
• Dollar – how low can it go?
• The underlying position – stability and change
• Reserve currency trends – storm in a teacup or
sterling revisited?
• What happened to volatilities?
• Determining the correct response
Speaker
Paul Mackel, Senior FX Strategist, HSBC, UK
Dr. Holger Schmieding, Head of European Economics, Bank of America, UK
14:15 Cash flow management: pay for
performance forecasting?
In the current environment investors, regulators,
rating agencies and your board itself need a
yardstick for measuring the financial health of your
company. How much cash flow are you generating,
and can you accurately report this? Forecasting
the cash flow has become an imperative for almost
every company out there, even those who in the
past have been hugely sceptical about the validity
of forecasts. Identifying short and long-term
liquidity needs are a prime component of a healthy
working capital management focus.
• Leading practice methods and innovative new
approaches
• Building the incentives package and benchmarks
• Data collection within the company
• Exponential smoothing/regression analysis
• Managing variance: practical applications
• Linking cash flow to the working capital cycle
15:15 End-to-end cash management: keeping
on track
Only a few companies have made the journey from
start to finish on an end-to-end cash management
solution. Most get bogged down in complications
and minutiae and hence stop in the middle with
no clear objective or end in sight. A total global
approach to cash optimisation can help you release
funds for a wider growth footprint. First you need
one window for cash: your technology, systems
and procedures have to support that. STP comes
into play as does bank rationalisation and choosing
the right cash structures. This best practice case
study will map the route.
• What is a single view of cash?
• What is the final goal?
• Technology, bank and liquidity support
structures
• Reengineering the cash management outcomes Speaker
Ken Osuga, General Manager Strategic Planning Division, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe, Germany
Treasury profile:
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH Industry: Printing, copying machine distribution in Europe
Annual turnover in euros: 1.8 million
Number of treasury employees: 30
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Decentralised business model, cash management is centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
16:40 Netting renews itself
While netting lost some of its traditional valueadded
with the introduction of the euro, the
product is again on an upswing in many European
regions. Faced with expensive processing costs for
internal invoices, corporates are discovering the
power of netting to handle these more efficiently – and slash costs as a result. An expert user shares
insights into getting the most out of netting.
• Types of netting and methods
• Financial flows and inter-company FX
• Structural and policy drivers
• A checklist approach
Speaker
Jenny Appenrodt, Director of Treasury, Thule, Sweden
Treasury Profile:
Thule Industry: Automotive Accessories
Annual turnover in euros: 800 million
Number of treasury employees: 4
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: yes
Cash rich or debt: debt
17:20 The best way to replace your bank
SEPA and other developments in cash management
may well mean now is the time to streamline your
bank relationships or use these developments
as an excuse to RFP for a new partner. Replacing
cash management banks isn’t always as simple or
smooth as expected – and is certainly far from any
form of ‘hot swapping’. Treasurers quite often find
it time consuming and challenging to move their
subsidiaries to new banks. A host of reasons can
lie behind this, including customers’ reluctance
to change, the sensitivity of a recent takeover,
lending relationships and/or unfamiliar systems
and interfaces. This session explores strategies and
tactics to resolve these situations.
• Drawing up the divorce settlement: what to
expect along the way
• Nuts and bolts of a move
• Timing issues
• Learning to let go of relationships: not burning
bridges
•Control and security issues
Speaker
Ciaran Murray, CFO, ICON, Ireland
Treasury profile:
ICON Clinical Research Industry: Pharmaceutical
Annual turnover in euros: 450 million
Number of treasury employees: 5
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Decentralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Neutral
14:15 Building a robust Investment policy and
performance measurement
Investment can often be an afterthought. “If it
earns something, fine” can be an often-employed
investment strategy for short-term cash. That’s
not doing your shareholders or stakeholders a
lot of good. This double session will look at basic
considerations from outsourcing the investment
management to using in-house capabilities. It
will also look at setting realistic policies, bearing
in mind the credit market fallout and the current
market conditions, and the range of extended
duration products becoming available. Also asset
allocation strategy will be looked at more closely.
A number of companies will talk about their
approach, because investing can never be a onesize-
fits-all solution.
• Credit market fallout: impact on treasury
• The evolving market environment
• Step number one: do you have a handle on cash?
• Outsourcing vs. in-house: cost, complications
and returns, and what you can manage in-house
(credit risk, interest risk etc)
• Planning your investment strategy: risk appetite
• Setting and explaining the strategy
• Strategic asset allocation
• How safe is your money?
• Know the underlying risk
• Counterparty risk management
• Yield and duration issues
• Putting together the solution: policy design and
performance measurement
Moderated by
Steve Everett, Director Balance Sheet & Ops. Assets,Northern Trust, USA
Panellists include
Barbara Hill, Vice President and Treasurer, Adobe Systems, USA
Linda Ruiz-Zaiko, President & Founder, Bridgebay Financial, USA Joachim Wettermark, Treasurer, Salesforce.com, USA
Treasury profile:
Adobe Industry: Communication Software
Annual turnover in euros: 3 billion USD
Number of treasury employees: 30
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: No
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash but some debt
Salesforce.com Industry: Software
Annual turnover in euros: 600 - 700 million
Number of treasury employees: 6
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: No
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: No
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
16:40 Investment appetite and opportunities
This session will look specifically at investment
products, drawbacks, opportunities, risks and
rewards. Treasurers must be aware of a whole host
of new products and how to evaluate and capitalise
on intra corporate group, local, regional and
international opportunities to extended duration
products, and matching those investments to the
their particular needs. Treasurers will be taken
through the maze of immediate cash
management strategies.
• A portfolio review
• A walk through investment opportunities
• Balancing yield and risk
• Mapping and monitoring risk
Speakers
David Atchley, Senior Manager, Treasury, Cisco
Systems, Switzerland
Joe Sarbinowski, Global Head of Institutional Liquidity Management Distribution, DB Advisors, USA
Neil Ellerbeck, Chief Information Officer, Global Liquidity Business, HSBC Global Asset
Management, UK
Neil Ellerbeck, Chief Investment Officer, Global Liquidity Business, HSBC Global Asset Management, UK
Andrew Nash, SVP Treasurer, Ahold, Switzerland
Treasury profile:
Ahold
Industry: Retail
Annual turnover in euros: 30 billion
Number of treasury employees: 14
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt but significant cash balance
14:15 The good, the bad and the ugly of financial
supply chain management
Is financial supply chain a big con? Some in the
industry say that transaction banks have had
two purposes in life: lending and processing
payments between parties. Then came SEPA and
other developments, meaning that only some “commercial” banks will have funding left. In the
efforts to get more business, many banks are
rebranding their traditional cash management
services as financial supply chain solutions and
renaming factoring as commercial credit. But are
you getting anything different? There are also
a number of players in the FSC space outside of
the banking community. How do you sort the
good from the bad? The audience will be able
to participate with interactive voting, giving
delegates a chance to really sort the wheat from
the chaff in supply chain finance.
• Technology solutions and services that link
everyone in the chain.
• How do you really reduce the cost of risk in the
supply chain?
• Definitions and redrawing the maps
• FSCM and supply chain finance
• Who owns the agenda?
• Interdepartmental tensions – different goals
• The role of banks and third parties – determining
what you need.
Speakers
Jack Large, Partner, J&W Associates, UK
Roque Damacela, Managing Director, Head of Trade Finance, EMEA, Global Transaction Services, Citi, UK
Stuart Nivison, Head of Trade and Supply Chain Europe, HSBC Bank, UK
Andrew Betts, Global Head Trade Finance and Supply Chain, Global Transaction Services, ABN AMRO, UK
John Gleason, EMEA Treasurer, Dell, UK
15:15 Tough credit environment: making sure
your financial supply chain supports
working capital
To support cutting edge working capital
management, forward-looking companies are
revising supply chain finance and inventory
management in the light of new opportunities
made possible by state-of-the-art technology and
third party companies getting involved in this
area. What are the best-in-class tools for enabling
companies to negotiate preferential purchase
terms and strengthen relationships with vendors,
strategic partners and key suppliers? Find out how
to put the best of them into practice so that they
improve your corporate financial performance.
• The next generation of working capital
management
• Ever more enabling technology
• Connecting disparate links in the supply chain
• Performance enhancing best practices
Speaker
Wayne Whitaker, Director of International Treasury,
Tech Data Corporation, USA
Treasury profile:
Tech Data Corporation
Industry: Distribution
Annual turnover in euros: 15 billion
Number of treasury employees: 10
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Hybrid
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
16:40 The EuroFinance Supply Chain
Challenge Trophy
Are you up to the challenge? Teams of four to eight
people will compete as a global wine production
and distribution company. This session will help
you to understand your underlying supply chain,
the financing opportunities and solutions along
the way, and risk trigger points. Through a series of
interactive exercises, teams will compete to prove
who has the best knowledge in the supply chain
arena. Wine and cheese will be served along the
way in a relaxed, fun and informative session.
YOU CAN JUST OBSERVE RATHER THAN
PARTICIPATE IF YOU CHOOSE.
This session will also ask the audience what supply
chain management means to them and how
they would like to view it. It will specifically look
at reducing the cost of finance across the whole
supply chain; dealing with risk in the supply chain;
and trade platform technology and tools for
increasing efficiency.
14:15 SEPA: Is it really a change agent for treasury?
This is our second apology in as many years for
putting SEPA squarely on the agenda, because so
often when we research with companies – they
say “enough on SEPA – it is a bank issue.” But
here is a new one for you: developments in the
Single European Payments Area are exciting for
you. Yes, really. The banks have been trying to
tell treasurers that for years, but for all you on the
corporate side, not a lot has been happening. After
all the investment and noise, how much practical
difference has it made to you, the payments user?
With SCT (SEPA Credit Transfer) the new file format
for mass euro payment transactions freshly minted
in January, has it made a difference? What is the
position in the migration from national systems in
favour of SEPA? Where are we on SEPA direct debits
(SDDs)? As banks fight to differentiate themselves,
what will the cross-selling opportunities they chase
mean for the treasurer? And if systemic risks emerge,
could the brakes go on for the whole project?
• Filling the SEPA information gap
• Managing transitions: when and how to do what?
• Direct debits: huge opportunities and risks
• What measures should corporates take?
• Working with banks
• The limits to rationalisation
• In 2009 the Payments Services Directive looms
• Where next for SEPA?
Speakers
José Carlos Cuevas de Miguel, Country Treasury Director, Alstom, Spain
Hans Cobben, Group Vice-President Global Payments and Messaging Solutions, SunGard, Belgium
Frank Taal, Global Head of Product Management, ING, The Netherlands
Marijke Terpstra, Corporate Treasurer, Swets & Zeitlinger, The
Netherlands
Treasury profile:
Alstom Industry: Engineering
Annual turnover in euros: 1.5 billion
Number of treasury employees: 25
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Not fully
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Swets & Zeitlinger Industry: Publishing
Annual turnover in euros: 800 million
Number of treasury employees: 4
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Treasury centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
15:15 Treasury partnerships: offering better cash
visibility for companies
While companies focus heavily on building and
improving their shared services, banks are in
effect mimicking those actions by centralising the
information that clients need to run an efficient
treasury. How? Key cash management banks are
building and improving their own CM portals as a
key distinguishing service against their competitors.
These portals can now offer not just a single window
of visibility to cash but can provide all the other
services available within the bank from FX dealing
and other asset classes to research and analysis
and real time information. Another avenue of
information amalgamation comes from the marriage
of third party technology with banking services, a
strategy which never really took off previously but
seems to be making a comeback. Banks seek to
leverage third party offerings rather than investing
in proprietary technology, and tech companies can
cash in on a bank’s customer base. Here is a classic
case of everyone working towards the same aims.
• Resolution of cash forecasting – can partners help?
• Using a portal to bolster cash visibility
• Helpful features and uses
Speakers
Raffi Basmadjian, Deputy Treasurer, France Telecom, France
Treasury profile:
France Telecom Industry: Telecoms
Annual turnover in euros: 52.9 billion
Number of treasury employees: 120
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Partially centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
16:40 Effectiveness testing and risk technology
This case study addresses the complications of
hedge accounting on cross-currency swaps and
specifically for cash flow hedges, using the fixed
benchmark method of interest hedge accounting
and fair value hedging. If you have requirements
concerning interest hedge accounting, particularly
cross-currency swaps and the conversion of loan
and interest amounts, this session will look at cash
flow hedges and fair value hedges under IFRS:
• Assigning the swaps to specific loans
• Calculating the fair value of both on each
reporting date using initial exchange rate
• Conducting the fixed benchmark method by
introducing a hypothetical loan
• Testing of prospective and retrospective
effectiveness
• Saving the outcomes of historical tests
Speakers
Maarten Michalides, Group Treasurer, Corio N.V., The
Netherlands
Martin Bellin, Managing Director, BELLIN GmbH FINANZDIENSTE, Germany
Treasury profile:
Corio NV Industry: Real Estate Investment
Annual turnover in euros: 300 million
Number of treasury employees: 2
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
17:20 Systems implementation: the right deal in a
world of choices
There is a world of choice out there. The ERP vs.
dedicated treasury management systems has been
an ongoing debate that EuroFinance has put at the
forefront of our agendas worldwide each year. There
is the choice of whether to use on demand or buy
and whether to let IT drive the decision-making
process or to have treasury take control. This session
is going to look at how a company makes choices,
building the investment case for IT , the CFO and
board, and then actual implementation timetables,
costs and challenges.
• Choosing the right choice for your needs
• Building the business case
• Setting goals, timetables
• Dealing with hurdles
• Evaluating cost/benefits
Speakers
Philippe Surjous, Corporate Entities Financial
Director, Veolia, France
Aliette Leleux, Senior Executive, Accenture, France
14:15 Chindia: China or India?
India or China? Where do you put your resources and what do you get back? China and India are two of the fastest growing economies in the world. Both present a challenging environment for financial and treasury operations. Comparing and contrasting the two countries provides an insight into business operations as well as pointing to future concerns and opportunities.
• Avenues for moving funds
• Growth rates
• Coping with country risk
• Overcoming the paperwork
• Banking issues
• Regulatory and tax concerns
Speaker:
Luis Montesinos, Treasurer, Alcatel-Lucent Iberia, Spain
Marco Bigatti, Group Treasurer, Luxottica Group, Italy
Treasury profile:
Alcatel-Lucent Iberia
Industry: Telecom
Annual turnover in euros: 18.7 billion
Number of treasury employees: N/A
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Regionalised
Do you have a treasury Management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash positive
15:15 CEE: how treasury supports active expansion in the region
For a company rapidly expanding in the central
and eastern European region, how do you
establish cost-effective banking, cash and treasury
arrangements in a centralised fashion? What are
the local payments and collections issues? What
are the available bank solutions? If you are looking
to find out more about setting up coordinated
cash management across the countries in order to
support your business expansion, this session will
help you to understand solutions in the region.
• Controlling cash flows
• Collection issues
• Payment issues
• Pooling practices
• Centralising the services
Speaker
Rudmer Wedzinga, Assistant Treasurer, Coty,
The Netherlands
Treasury profile:
Coty
Industry: FMCG
Annual turnover in euros: 3 billion
Number of treasury employees: 7
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
16:40 Improving visibility across the Middle East
and beyond
Dubai is paving the way forward with reform in the
region, but while markets are opening and relaxing
norms towards liquidity and tax issues, companies
still have to face a number of restrictions in
the region. So how can you build tax efficient,
transparent liquidity processes and move your cash
more freely around? What are the concentration,
pooling and sweeping structures you can put
into place and what are the best tools available to
manage the information? This case study will show
one company’s experience of creating the best
possible liquidity solution regionally.
Speaker
Dalia Khorshid, Group Corporate Treasurer,
Orascom Construction Industries, UAE
17:20 Re-engineering the treasury of the future
in Asia
Many companies are stuck with legacy systems,
processes and policies. This case study will look at
how one company embraced those challenges and
set into place a blueprint for the future. This session
will look at the archetypal company undergoing
the strain of change: acquisitions, differing levels of
performance; reliance on local treasury structures
and banks and seeking to centralise to increase
efficiencies. Hear about the challenging details of a
complete reengineering: project objectives and the
work done so far and what really happened versus
expectations.
• Assessing the current
• Planning the future
• Putting it all into practice
• Stumbling blocks and challenges
• Measuring results
Speakers
Steven Harper, Vice President & Corporate Treasurer, Flextronics, Austria
Mark Payne, Assistant Director, HSBC Global Payments & Cash Management, UK
Treasury profile:
Flextronics
Industry: EMS
Annual turnover in euros: 22 billion
Number of treasury employees: 20
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Regionalised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
09:00 Distributed treasury: centralised vs. decentralised is the
wrong debate!
This morning’s opening plenary will challenge traditional treasury models including
the view of centralisation as the Holy Grail of treasury. The mantra of centralisation
has moved on and now the conversation needs to be about which areas to
centralise. As the nature of business changes and global risks increase, sometimes
local market knowledge and responsibility can give companies a distinct edge.
This may be in the area of funding, bank relationships, liquidity or local credit
risk to name but a few. However, proponents of full centralisation say that any
decentralised approach cedes control and visibility and can lead to inaccuracy, high
bank charges and increased risk. This panel will look at some companies which have
opted for less centralised functionality to gain better efficiencies in core areas of
treasury. Companies will speak about specific solutions and experiences.
Moderated by:
Sebastian di Paola, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Switzerland
Panellists include:
Kristian Pullola, Group Treasurer, Nokia, Finland
Aidan Clare, Head of Corporate Finance and Treasury, Tetra-Laval, Switzerland
10:00 Next generation treasury: the future-proof build
What is a future-proof treasury? The answer could be one which the treasurer
architects, builds and then hands over the transactional piece of treasury. This
can include cash management (the pools) AR/AP and the in-house bank (internal
accounts) to the shared service centre. This new model means that treasury goes
totally strategic and can be a true partner to the business. Costs get lowered
and efficiency increases as shared services becomes an internal supplier to the
treasury. One step further and could the whole thing be outsourced?
11:20 The new European business model: finally, a single Europe offers
treasury a singular solution
The Societas Europaea (European public company model) is a quiet revolution
that strikes at the heart of business models for the future. It offers a level of
centralisation simply not possible within the normal confines of treasury
centralisation. This business model allows you to forget transfer pricing and tax
issues as well as sales agreement differentials and these are just the tip of the
iceberg. Is the complexity and time involved worth the end result?
12:00 How treasury can underpin the business
Last year a EuroFinance treasury and business unit survey showed there was a
strong willingness from treasury professionals to work more closely with their
colleagues in operations, but very few were able to achieve a partnership status
that benefited the entire business. At The International in Vienna 2007 we asked
a group of Fortune 500 and other large private companies to take part in a survey
and panel to measure satisfaction of the business with treasury and vice versa.
This year’s session is expanded with a more comprehensive approach and some
surprising results that show the treasury may well be breaking out of its ivory tower.
Moderated by:
Tom Leander, Editorial Director, EuroFinance, UK
Panellists include:
Hans Van den Bosch, Head of Treasury Operations, Unilever, The Netherlands
Paul Jonckheere, Treasury Project Coordinator, Carrefour Coordination
Centre, Belgium
François Masquelier, SVP Head of Treasury and Corporate Finance, RTL Group
and Board Member of EACT, Luxembourg
Annette Owen, Global Cash & Banking Manager,
British American Tobacco, UK
Scott Hogate, Assistant Treasurer, Advanced Medical Optics, USA
Treasury profile: RTL Group Industry: Media
Annual turnover in euros: 5.75 billion
Number of treasury employees: 6
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Fully centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
Advanced Medical Optics Industry: Ophthalmic medical devices
Annual turnover in euros: 750 million
Number of treasury employees: 5
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Regionalised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes SAP
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
Unilever Industry: Fast moving consumer goods
Annual turnover in euros: 40 billion
Number of treasury employees: 80 approx.
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Combination, but moving to fully centralised structure
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Debt
14:30 Building and benchmarking a treasury-led
shared service centre: treasurers talk to
treasurers
This session will begin with the results from a
EuroFinance summer 2008 survey on shared
services centres including the relationship
with treasury; the scope of the shared services;
expansion and the difficulties in using shared
services for some pieces of the transaction. What
is the role of technology? Treasurers in this session
will also be asking the audience for their views and
metrics in order to allow delegates to benchmark
the current state of their own shared services or
to simply find out more about what companies do
within this environment.
• One size and model doesn’t fit all
• How many centres, where and reporting lines
• Pieces of the shared service puzzle and where
they fit in
• What is transactional excellence?
• Outsourcing
• Adding new services and expanding the scope of
your shared services
• Benchmarking and metrics
Speakers
Natalia Kang, Manager, LG Electronics European
Shared Service Centre,
The Netherlands
Juan Aranols, Iberian Region CFO, Nestlé, Spain
Jukka Heikkinen, Vice President, Cash Management & Administration, Metsä Group Financial Services, Finlan
Treasury profile:
LG Electronics Industry: Electronics
Annual turnover: 17 billion USD
Number of treasury employees: 65
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Regionalised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash debt
15:10 Shared service centres for
integrating growth
Procter & Gamble were early adopters of a
centralised shared service centre approach and
now have three regional centres managing AP/AR,
payroll, HR and T&E. By developing a close working
relationship with their treasury, P&G’s SSC has also
been able to develop a world-class framework for
the integration of acquisitions.
• Developing a centralisation culture
• The relationship between a SSC and the treasury
• Achieving automation and transactional
excellence
• What model for growth?
• Framework and best practice for acquisition
integration
Speaker
Ben Fletcher, EMEA Treasury Banking Manager,
Procter & Gamble, UK
16:30 Shared services driving cash flow
In most businesses, one of the hardest tasks facing
the treasurer is producing an accurate cash flow
projection, even short-term. With cash flow and
working capital management of increasing concern
to companies, shared service centres should be
able to work closely with treasurers to accurately
forecast a company’s cash requirements with a
strong grip on payables and even collections.
This means transactional business sits within the
SSC freeing up management to drive business
performance.
Speakers
Kurt Vanwingh, Credit Control Manager EMEA,
Rockwell, Belgium
Dieter Stynen, Treasury Solutions Team Leader, GTB, Deutsche Bank, Belgium
17:10 The next evolution of shared services:
overcoming growing pains
Setting up shared services doesn’t end when the
operation goes live. If you want to maximise shared
services multi-functionality, the organisation needs
to develop and expand and maintain a strategic
position within the corporate environment. How
does treasury drive that forward? This case study
will look at rapid expansion opportunities for
financial shared services and at how much is too
much?
• Positioning shared services for expansion
• How to make the business case
• Identifying opportunities and obstacles
to growth: what services sit well in shared
environments
• How big can it grow and when to stop?
Speaker
Gabor Wavrik, Head of European and NAM FX Treasury Services, Diageo Business Services Center, Hungary
Treasury profile:
Diageo Industry: Spirits
Annual turnover in euros: 17 billion
Number of treasury employees: 60
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes SAP
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Rich
14:30 A holistic approach to foreign exchange
Translation, transaction and economic risk. These
are terms used frequently when discussing
currencies and how they affect companies.
Definitions still vary, but dealing with these types
of foreign exchange risk is as much an art as a
science. Translation risk, where accounting risks
emerge on the balance sheet as currencies change
and transaction risk – between entering a contract
and settling it – can be mitigated by hedging.
Economic risks – both in terms of profit and loss
and country risks too, can be eased. How do you
identify what these terms mean for your company?
How do you get a long-term strategy in place? Are
you hedging things that you shouldn’t be hedging?
Watch out that you aren’t hedging against the net
value of your company. If companies spend more
time on their underlying business model, they
may decide that subsidiaries take their share of
underlying risk. Here are practical strategies for
foreign exchange risk management.
• Transaction risk: identifying an IFRS-appropriate
hedging strategy
• Translation risk: the perennial battle with
financial controllers
• Economic risk: country risk and P&L risk. Put your
money where your mouth is
• Beyond forwards and options, what are the
different ways to manage foreign exchange?
• Alternative risk management strategies: back to
basics in billing
Speaker
Baudouin Courau, Director Corporate Finance and Treasury,
Alcatel-Lucent, France
Peter van Rood, Director Corporate Finance and Treasury, AkzoNobel,
The Netherlands
Stuart Kirk, Director, EMEA Treasury Operations, Xerox Corporation, Ireland
AkzoNobel Industry: Chemicals and coatings
Annual turnover in euros: 15 billion
Number of treasury employees: 50
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised and regionalised
Do you have a treasury management system: yes (Wallstreet (TRM)
and an IHB
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: No
Cash rich or debt: debt 5.5 billion, cash 2 billion (end Q1/08)
16:30 Adventures in electronic trading systems
Faced with the choice between single bank
proprietary or multibank dealing systems such as
FXAll, Currenex, FXConnect, Globalink, Espeed or
the simple conversational telephone links, what
should a treasurer do? Portals may sound like a
window into another universe, but how much
do they actually bring the trading floor into your
treasury? How risky is it to put all your eggs in one
basket. Is it worth putting all your foreign exchange
volume on a single platform? Treasurers thrash
out the issues with out with a selection of the
major proprietary and bank providers of trading
platforms.
• State of the art – trading in-house/out-of-house
• A volume game. How much is too much?
• Trading via a prime broker – the ins and outs
• Being a visible player
• Regulation, strategy and challenges
• Cost issues and stacking up the benefits
Speaker:
Marcel Kellerhals, Group Treasurer, Panalpina, Switzerland
Treasury profile
Panalpina
Industry: Logistics
Annual turnover in euros: 6.448 billion
Number of treasury employees: 5
Are you fully centralised/ regionalised/ decentralised: Centralised
Do you have a treasury management system: Yes, system 10
Do you have cross-border pooling in place: Yes
Cash rich or debt: Cash rich
17:10 Settling with the big league
Continuous linked settlement used to be the
preserve of banks. Now, though, certain corporates
are venturing into the arena. Eliminating
settlement risk in cross-border financial payments
is something the active treasury may wish to
consider if it wants to ensure that delays arising
from differences in time zones, legal jurisdictions
and operating procedures are things of the past.
This case study will also look at different models
for treasury integration with the aim to define
best practice within treasury in terms of straightthrough
processing, operational risk and bringing
down operating costs.
• How to ensure seamless treasury integration
• What systems/technologies to benefit from?
• Continuous linked settlement and where it fits in
with STP
• The benefits of continuous linked settlement
• Size limitations/challenges of operating
