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| Press release - Nordic & Baltic |
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‘Managing New Connections, Mastering New Challenges’: Cash and Treasury Management in the Nordic and Baltic Regions
May’s EuroFinance conference in Riga - ‘Managing New Connections, Mastering New Challenges’: Cash and Treasury Management in the Nordic and Baltic Regions – was a landmark event.
As one of the conference’s most warmly received speakers, Actavis Group’s Oskar Sigurdsson, recalled, EuroFinance’s Nordic presence dates back as far as 2001. The company had also already run successful conferences in the Baltics in the previous two years. But May 30/31 marked the first combined event for treasury practitioners from either side of the Baltic Sea.
Increasing links, rapid growth
Bringing some 400 Nordic and Baltic speakers, delegates and exhibitors together in the Reval Hotel Latvija acknowledged the increasingly close links – financial, corporate and cultural - across the region. It also enabled both Baltic and smaller Nordic companies to tap into best practice among the region’s leading corporates, such as Ericsson (whose Sven Carlsson spoke on emerging FX) and Yara (Siri-Anne dos Santos on SWIFT SCORE). These have long enjoyed a prominent standing as some of Europe’s most sophisticated cash and treasury practitioners.
At the same time, it offered insight into the opportunities provided by the on-going rapid growth experienced across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and north-eastern Europe more generally (Russia, Poland, Ukraine). Representatives of local companies including Arco Vara, ELKO Group, Eesti Energia, Eesti Raudtee, Kontakt East and Meta-EKS contributed their valuable insights into operating in this exciting but relatively unstructured environment.
Lively debate
Between sessions, the conference was a hubbub of conversation in many different languages. Besides English, in which it was held, and the seven Nordic/Baltic tongues, French, Dutch and Russian were all heard.
This broad variety was reflected in the presentations and panel discussions enjoyed by delegates across the two-day conference. Besides a host of traditional cash and treasury topics like liquidity solutions and management, working capital and tax, experts presented on several broad adjacent areas.
These sessions inspired some of the liveliest debate of the entire conference. They included perspectives from two key external constituencies – the equity market and credit rating agencies – courtesy of one of Sweden’s top-ranked equity analysts (Anders Bruzelius of Swedbank Markets) and senior representatives of all three major ratings agencies (Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s).
In addition, new perspectives on financing were provided by sessions on mezzanine by the leading provider of this hybrid instrument (ICG); on public finance by the region’s prestigious triple-A supranational (the Nordic Investment Bank); and on convertible bonds by a successful recent issuer (Citycon).
A potentially key future concern was also addressed by Eesti Energia’s presentation on carbon trading.
Building from scratch
As noted, Actavis Group’s Oskar Sigurdsson cited earlier EuroFinance Nordic conferences during a stimulating presentation on Managing Constant Acquisitions. In particular, 2002’s event in Copenhagen was a key part of his research ahead of creating Iceland’s first corporate treasury, Mr Sigurdsson said.
This experience had considerable resonance, especially with Baltic attendees. Few dedicated treasury departments yet exist in the Baltic countries, especially in their mostly very young private-sector companies. But Actavis’s powerful growth and Mr Sigurdsson’s ambitious treasury model for supporting this were clearly inspirational to many delegates.
The most sophisticated Baltic corporate treasuries are often found in the public sector. Janis Irbe, finance manager at Latvenergo, noted that the Latvian power utility began building its operation after the same EuroFinance event that inspired Actavis – and was reassured to discover many similarities in their subsequent approach, despite the significant differences between the companies.
Chairmen’s charm
The conference had the benefit of a chairman with vast knowledge of both the international and local treasury markets. Stephen Archer, an English expatriate, came to the region as a PwC advisor on privatisation in the early 1990s and has served as finance director and a board member of the now-renationalising Estonian Railways since 2002.
In addition to Stephen’s 20 years, delegates and speakers could also draw on comparable levels of experience in the chairmen of each day’s three afternoon streams. In particular, Peter Livijn and Anders Akner of SEK Financial Advisors (a division of Sweden’s export credit agency) brought a wealth of knowledge to the Liquidity and Treasury Trends and New Developments in Corporate Connectivity streams, respectively. Moreover, the third stream chairman – Jonas Slavinskas, Baltic treasurer for Kraft Foods – also combined local and international expertise.
Copenhagen or Stockholm?
A nicely interactive touch gave delegates the opportunity of choosing the location of next year’s conference during this year’s event. A mound of grey voting slips expressing preferences for Copenhagen or Stockholm duly built up at the desk of the EuroFinance team under event manager Dorien Lopes Cardozo.
For the record, delegates were evenly divided between the Nordic capitals on offer in the vote - democracy in action!
Conference partner AirBaltic reinforced the excitement over next year’s event by printing up mock boarding cards from Riga to either Copenhagen or Stockholm next May (in the name of Mr. I.M.A Treasurer), offering delegates special discounted fares.
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| Special offers |
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15% discount on Air Baltic for the 2008 conference
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