Best in Class Treasury Solution in the Middle East
Overall Winner
Americana Restaurants
Photo of Salman Riaz, Mashreq Bank, Saurabh Limkar, Americana Restuarants and Imaad Khan, Mashreq Bank.
Harsh Bansal
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Growth Officer
Americana Restaurants is the largest restaurant operator in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and Kazakhstan. It operates more than 2,400 restaurants and 12 iconic brands across 12 markets and is jointly listed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (TADAWUL) and the UAE (ADX).
in partnership with
The challenge
The complex processes behind creating a new treasury function when companies are split into separate entities is keenly observed by corporate treasurers. Americana Restaurants, the iconic MENA chain that includes brands like KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardees and Krispy Kreme alongside proprietary brands, hived off Americana Foods into a separate entity, ahead of the dual listing in December 2022.
Americana’s quest to build a new treasury function to support future growth faced a number of challenges. The fact both companies used the same shared services centre. Treasury was mostly manual, with laboured reporting processes impacting cash flow and liquidity management. Moreover, the group’s multiple markets with unique business requirements resulted in complex operational variations and nuances.
The split was also an opportunity for the Americana Restaurants to re-invent a new treasury based on visibility, control, centralisation and scalable technology. It was also a chance to create a new customer interface and system integration that ensured the security and protection of financial information.
The solution
Partnering with banking group Mashreq, Americana leveraged its partner’s GCC expertise and technological capabilities to streamline a new treasury operation and drive growth. The key tenets of the new treasury, began in March 2023 and completed ten months later, included:
Enhanced reconciliation:
Americana’s over-the-counter collections are between 20% and 25% cash. Reconciliation was streamlined via a combination of cash deposit machines (more than 250 now in place) and customised MT940 reporting.
Merchant acquiring (POS) to Americana Restaurants’ key brands.
Payments factory – Mashreq helped Americana’s treasury team shortlist a treasury management system (TMS), which gives single-window visibility and control for all the markets in which Americana is present.
Payroll – Americana’s payroll has been automated using TMS, given the connectivity with the ERP and Banks across GCC markets.
Best practice and innovation
Americana knew it needed to embrace automation to create a future-ready treasury. But visualising new processes was difficult, especially given the company’s reliance on manual processes. Mashreq introduced the team to existing clients to showcase examples of best practice in cash management. A couple of roundtables later, Americana was confident of the benefits and its ability to overcome initial implementation barriers.
Americana’s TMS adoption marked the biggest transformation. Before adopting the TMS, payment initiation was manual, involving team members generating payments on various banking portals or uploading files. Now, payments flow directly from our ERP to TMS, with approvers authorising through a unified portal, reducing fraud risk and manual intervention. Supporting documents are now provided as soft copies via a link, eliminating the need for printing.
TMS has successfully streamlined a previously complex process, enhancing efficiency and accuracy. By integrating with ERP and optimising workflows, we have significantly reduced manual tasks and errors. This transformation has led to quicker turnaround times, improved resource allocation, and greater overall productivity.
This transformation project was historic amongst corporates in the Middle East alongside US$1.8bn IPO – the first ever concurrent dual listing on the ADX and the Saudi Stock exchange in 2022.
Key benefits
Cost savings.
Headcount savings.
Reduction in Number of banking partners/bank accounts.
Mashreq is a more than half-century-old bank, yet proudly thinks like a challenger, startup and innovator. Mashreq pioneered key innovations and developments in banking, starting with entry-level digital-first customers, all the way to powering some of the region’s most prominent corporations and wealth accounts.
The bank’s mandate is to help customers find their way to Rise Every Day, partnering through the highs and lows to help them reach fulfilment, achieve financial goals and unlock their vision of success.
Reassuringly present in major financial centres of the world, Mashreq’s home and global HQ remains in the Middle East, offering services whenever and wherever opportunity takes its customers.
The Adam Smith Awards are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2024 awards attracted 389 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards
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