Digital ‘state of the art’ treasury transformation for Sika in Egypt
Published: Sep 2025
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Sika Egypt for Construction Chemicals
Photo of Miles Garrod, Sika and Russell Roberts, HSBC.
Eman Gaber
Treasury Head
Egypt Sika Group has a presence in over 100 countries with 25,000 staff and 300 manufacturing sites. Listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange the group operates in construction, automotive and the afterparts industries. The group subsidiary, Sika Egypt for Construction Chemicals, has three manufacturing facilities in Egypt, operating since 1990.
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The challenge
Sika Egypt for Construction (Sika) wanted to enhance its treasury management operations and move away from manual processes by adopting digital solutions to automate and streamline its Egypt treasury function. Key requirements in addressing local operational needs, were the ability to improve visibility and control, eliminate manual payments and collections, remove physical cash handling and streamline expense management.
Sika’s treasury team faced several challenges including many manual processes which were time-consuming; inward cheque payments required safe keeping within the company’s head-office, which were prone to risks, insurance costs and necessitated daily visits to the branch, and statutory payments had to be made by submitting forms directly to the branch.
Statements were printed and manually cross-referenced to track inward collections against sales. Managing payables and receivables reconciliation was time consuming and prone to error and risk. Reconciliation to the ERP was time consuming. Reporting on the monthly cheque status could only be carried out manually and the company had restricted online access on the existing banking portfolio.
The challenges were compounded by multiple bank logins; use of passwords and tokens being required – a time consuming and cumbersome process to just access daily cash positions. Local banking partners had limited/no international footprint and limited digital capabilities, which restricted the options for an international subsidiary operating in Egypt.
The challenge and risk of managing the physical cash collections in EGP and USD was also difficult.
The solution
To remain at the forefront of the chemicals industry in Egypt, Sika was ready to digitise its treasury function. The company wanted to move away from multiple banking relationships and work with a main core treasury and banking partner with extensive international reach.
Sika leveraged HSBC’s international footprint and wide range of cash management solutions to help streamline its local treasury operations and cash management structures.
Robust bank connectivity – capitalising on the company’s existing HSBC net master profile with HSBC in Egypt, bank account reconciliation has been simplified with downloadable MT940 statement formats to provide end-of-day statements for cash balance visibility and control.
Automated payments – a single bank account was opened for making payments and receiving collections across all instruments – cash, cheque, electronic transfers (ACH and RTGS), centralising payments through HSBC. Using standardised payment formats and implementing STP, has automated payment processes from initiation to execution, optimising the company’s operations and removing manual intervention.
E-bills for government payments have now been integrated on the e-channel, enabling statutory payments to be automatically settled with the biller. Corporate cards were chosen to enhance control and visibility over management expenses, thereby eliminating use of petty cash and reducing the time-consuming process of expensing and refunding employees for their corporate expenses.
Express cash solution – a customised door-to-door pick‑up and delivery service of cash collections for depositing at HSBC removes the need for branch visits and manual cash handling.
Express banking – a customised door-to-door pick-up and delivery service of cheques for processing at HSBC removes the need for branch visits. Post-dated cheque warehousing bank collects, safely stores and monitors due dates of post‑dated cheques until the clearing date when deposited for draw down.
Automated reconciliation – using HSBC receivables management system consolidates deposited cheques against billing files to provide processed collection and reconciliation information. The company now has consolidated visibility over its cash flow with enhanced reporting and visibility through the Liquidity Management Dashboard while covering third-party bank reporting.
Best practice and innovation
Sika has transformed its traditional treasury function to a state-of-the-art streamlined treasury management structure, which will help to maintain and grow market share across this important region of the company’s operations. This deal is a testament to how a full treasury digitisation and transformation can be implemented for a local subsidiary of an international business.
Key benefits
Cost savings.
Headcount savings.
Process efficiencies.
Increased automation.
Risk mitigated.
Improved visibility.
Errors reduced.
Number of banking partners/bank accounts reduced.
Manual intervention reduced.
Increased system connectivity.
Future-proof solution.
Improved key performance indicator (KPI) metrics.
“Through deploying HSBC’s digital banking solutions, we’ve taken an important step to enhance control over our treasury and cash management banking activities, streamlining our treasury function,” says Eman Gaber, Treasury Head.
Diaa El Shater
MENAT Regional Sales Manager, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC
Sika’s project balanced local operating needs with central treasury’s desire for a more automated and streamlined operating model. Working with the world’s largest global transaction bank, HSBC, they were able to achieve this balance and drive straight-through processing (STP) and on-demand cash visibility from a single platform, while still meeting the complex needs of their local operating companies. It was a “win/win/win” for Sika’s treasury team, local operations and HSBC.
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