In the driving seat: treasury transformation accelerates growth at Inchcape
Published: Feb 2026
Corporate Treasurer of the Year
Highly Commended Winner
Hannisel Obedicen, Inchcape
Hannisel Obedicen
Head of Treasury APAC
Inchcape plc is a global independent multi-brand automotive distributor and retailer, headquartered in London, UK, with operations in over 40 markets across Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe and Africa. The company distributes and retails premium new and used vehicles, provides aftersales services and offers financial services.
Hannisel Obedicen, Head of Treasury APAC, has been instrumental in shaping Inchcape’s treasury across Asia in a role that has spanned steering major transformation projects, introducing new technology and delivering liquidity and risk management solutions. She has also recruited and developed a treasury team from scratch. Her vision and execution have strengthened Inchcape’s treasury operations in a dynamic and fast-evolving business landscape, and supported corporate goals like digital transformation, operational agility and capital efficiency.
Her standout achievements include liquidity transformation. She introduced a liquidity structure that overhauled working capital efficiency, led to an increase in the company’s free cash flow and reduced reliance on external funding. She also developed a funding mechanism for markets not directly connected to Inchcape’s global cash pool, and reframed the bank structure for key markets Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. This led to a reduction in cash by a third over the course of a year and she is currently reviewing other markets too.
She has also integrated new technology. Hannisel has championed the implementation of a best in class treasury management system (TMS) that has enhanced real‑time cash visibility, automated reporting and streamlined reconciliation processes. She has also provided critical support to Inchcape’s dividend call and supported technology initiatives that have improved both cash control and efficiency.
She has led a regional banking rationalisation project that reduced the company’s banking partners resulting in cost savings, stronger relationships and standardised processes. She is currently leading the review of facility T&Cs (renewals and new contracts) to ensure full compliance with Inchcape’s parent facilities, and she is also renegotiating material bank contracts across key subsidiaries.
Leadership in action
Her leadership has amounted to a treasury transformation, spearheaded the regional rollout of a centralised treasury framework that unified cash management, FX exposure control and intercompany funding across a diverse set of Asian markets.
She has built a high-performing treasury team known for its collaborative approach with finance, tax and procurement teams that contributes to enhanced cross-functional value creation. Her extensive experience in global treasury management, and renowned strategic vision and leadership in transforming treasury operations, has been pivotal in driving Inchcape’s treasury transformation initiatives across cash flow, liquidity and working capital.
Innovation in action: supply chain and inventory finance
Hannisel’s ability to balance risk management, liquidity optimisation and stakeholder engagement has made her a trusted advisor to the C-suite and a key contributor to Inchcape’s strategic goals. She takes a strategic view of cash and working capital management in a value-add approach recently witnessed in her extensive review of the group’s entire supply chain to identify funding opportunities to improve Inchcape’s global working capital.
In other initiatives, she has collaborated with partner banks to develop new solutions for inventory financing, and she has partnered with banks to review working capital forecasts to ensure adequate trade facility support as well as introducing changes to OEM terms and setting out new-to-region payment terms for China OEMS (Changan, Deepal, GWM and Foton). She worked with MUFG to cover end-to-end inventory financing for Indonesian subsidiaries, touching both assembler and distributor entities. She was also involved in the trade finance structure for Inchcape (Indomobil) in Indonesia, including the recent pre-shipment invoice financing with MUFG.
Navigating currency volatility and bank consolidation
In her role as Corporate Treasurer for Inchcape Asia, Hannisel has navigated a complex mix of operational and financial challenges demonstrating resilience, adaptability and strategic insight.
In response to growing foreign exchange risk and unpredictability in cash flows and pricing models triggered by trade tensions, she developed a new FX hedging policy to navigate currency volatility (USD/JPY, CNY/USD, SGD/MYR). A centralised FX exposure monitoring process has transformed Inchcape’s ability to respond swiftly to currency swings.
The strategy included developing a management framework for the different foreign currency positions and deploying appropriate hedging strategies to comply with policies and integrate cash-flow hedge accounting. Prior to this there was no robust cash flow forecast processes, and the new framework now supports closer-to-market, real-time FX decision-making including identifying onshore vs offshore pricing opportunities.
She has expanded coverage to cover UK daily cash management in support of Inchcape’s ‘follow the sun’ strategy. This has led to quicker responses to funding and FX requests and backup support for UK cash operations.
She has also supported a series of M&A transactions in line with the company’s growth ambitions, securing the funding requirements of both the Indonesia MB and Philippines CATS Group partnerships during her first three months in the role when she was still building the team.
Inchcape operates across multiple markets in Asia, each with its own local banking relationships, manual processes and inconsistent reporting standards, limiting cash visibility, delaying decision-making and increasing operational risk. Hannisel led a regional bank rationalisation programme, consolidating flows into key banking partners in ASEAN in a strategy that coupled with the roll out of TMS across core markets, has helped create a centralised, automated treasury hub. The initiative has brought real-time visibility into cash positions, standardised processes and transformed reconciliation accuracy and cycle times. It also involved integrating new treasury processes, some of which were a totally new way of working.
Her ability to turn each challenge into an opportunity for long-term transformation is a testament to her effectiveness as a leader. Her approach combines strategic foresight, financial discipline, digital transformation has significantly strengthened Inchcape’s treasury operations and resilience across Asia.
The Adam Smith Awards Asia are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards-asia
