Adam Smith Awards Asia
Congratulations to all our 2023 Adam Smith Awards Asia winners.
With a strong focus on business partnering and advisory, risk management, digitalisation, process automation and operational efficiency. Nestlé Treasury Centre Asia-Pacific (NTC-AP) manages the treasury activities covering over 20 markets and all business entities in Asia-Pacific.
Adnan Bora Baykal had an association with finance and treasury since before his graduation, when he interned with two banks in Turkey and with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). He learned the basics of accounting, financial control, audit and compliance in accordance with the internationally recognised account principles.
Lokesh Reddy joined Quest as a Treasury Manager in 2002. He rose through the ranks to become Head of Treasury and has more than 20 years experience in business strategy, finance, risk management and M&A. He proved instrumental in transforming the business and streamlining the group into an industry vertical during COVID-19 to better navigate the new economy.
Rani Misra has been with Cargill for 23 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and an MBA in International Management & Finance. She started as an analyst in Cargill’s global headquarters in Minneapolis, US and has since had treasury roles in the UK and Singapore, where she currently leads Cargill’s Asia-Pacific treasury.
As Coupang strived to improve its user and seller experience, cross-border payments for sales proceeds to international merchants became one of the processes the company identified for transformation. These had been managed centrally to maintain operational efficiency and visibility on funds and were made directly via either telegraphic transfer or third-party payment service provider (PSP).
In 2022, Storskogen launched an office in Singapore as a step in the Group’s vision to become the leading international owner of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Since then, Storskogen has strengthened its foothold in the area through selective and strategic acquisitions. Given its Group Treasury’s keen focus on having full visibility and control over its global cash, Storskogen wanted to set up a regional cash pooling structure to integrate funds across the acquired companies into the Group.
In pursuit of financial excellence and innovation, AIA’s Group Treasury Operations team embarked on a transformative journey to enhance its cash forecasting capabilities across the Group.
With a dozen entities throughout China and a shared service centre (SSC) in Shanghai, Autoliv China has the challenge of simplifying payment flows for its 420+ overseas suppliers from more than 35 markets with invoices in more than nine different currencies. With high frequency of orders and delivery to meet production timings, this has resulted in more than 1,000 cross-border transactions per month, all handled manually.
Lenovo implemented a global trade receivables securitisation programme for 45 entities in 2019. In 2022, Lenovo Group Limited had approached its bank for a supplemental solution to the securitisation programme. They required a committed financing solution involving 12 of its wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in different countries across Europe.
The world faced unprecedented challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to global challenges, in 2022, Sri Lanka suffered an economic crisis with an acute shortage of forex, electricity and fuel. This posed a significant business continuity risk in executing food and beverage manufacturing processes to meet consumer demand.
Sony Group Corporation has a vision of capturing its real-time cash balances across the entire group. But with more than 1,000 bank accounts maintained with global and regional banking providers, this vision was highly challenging. This was due to Sony’s current process which required each group company to manually access the e-banking portals of each financial institution while also depending on bank statements that show cash flows only at the end of each day.
With the completed acquisition of Gemalto [now known as Thales Digital Identity & Security (DIS)] in 2019, Thales tripled its workforce in Asia, notably in Singapore as its regional hub. It was therefore critically important for Thales to integrate the larger APAC subsidiaries into its global set-up as seamlessly as possible, within defined timelines with efficient, effective and sustainable solutions.
TE Connectivity (TE) runs four entities in India, with its trading entity being operated from the country’s Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) – a highly regulated Special Economic Zone (SEZ) that facilitates trading and warehousing activities with ease of customs-related benefits.
As Walmart expands in China and imported goods become particularly welcomed by local consumers, the company found itself encountering the following challenges in its treasury operations: highly labour-intensive process in handling cross-border payments due to China’s complex regulations. The large volume of documents to be prepared and delivered to banks led to significant delays in the settlement cycle and inefficiencies in reconciliation.
Given the nature of travel, where bookings are usually made in advance and settlement to hotels is made upon completion of travel, the company is open to the risk of FX rate fluctuations when it comes to settling with overseas hotels. It also faces multiple recurring cross-border payments to hotels leading to high fund transfer fees as well as manual processing.
Denso’s entire business is based on the Denso philosophy, and it guides all aspects of all corporate actions. The Denso philosophy aims to ensure it will continue to be a corporation that is trusted by people around the world, by defining its mission, management principles and individual spirit of Denso and establishing “Valuing nature and living harmoniously with society” as one of its management policies.
Unlike domestic payments, cross-border payments, have always been labour-intensive and cost inefficient in China. Local regulations require corporates to provide one of three supporting documents – either the custom declaration form (CDF), commercial invoices or purchase order – for matching and reconciliation against payment reference numbers, which is typically a manual process.
Longbridge’s customers are required to hold foreign currencies to trade in overseas markets. Its customers are aware of the time sensitivity of market movements and Longbridge previously faced the challenge of being able to offer customers a seamless FX conversion experience while maintaining trade volumes.
Relatively new to Asia Pacific (APAC), Webull received its Australian Financial Services (AFS) license in June 2022 to launch its trading business in Australia by end of the year. The company sought a global banking provider that could deliver a next-generation treasury infrastructure to power its mobile trading platform and help navigate and meet complex regulations and expectations of operating an online brokerage platform in Australia.
With several in-country finance teams located across the Americas, EMEA and APAC managing operations independently, disparate payment methods and fragmented banking relationships began to create challenges for Birla Carbon to manage the transactions.
Nitin Sethi embarked on his career as an analyst at WNS in 2007, demonstrating his dedication to financial excellence from the outset. Subsequently, he honed his skills further during his tenure at ICICI Bank, where he spent several years before transitioning to a bigger role at Deutsche Bank, where he excelled as Manager of their trade finance operations for six years.
The Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB) wanted to make it quicker and more convenient for Singaporeans to receive government payments, by eliminating issuance and encashment of cheques, streamlining disbursement processes and automating reconciliation, including refunds from merchants.
A bespoke trade financing solution had been implemented by leveraging the company’s strong receivables portfolio to improve Hafnia Pools’ working capital and cash conversion cycles. As a result, Hafnia Pools needed to onboard a new cash management bank to support seamless transaction flows coupled with the trade financing solution.
Gore’s banking organisation had become decentralised without a global central structure and lacked full visibility into cash across a significant number of bank accounts with 30+ banks around the world.
In 2020, AbbVie acquired Allergan in a US$63bn transaction and the company promptly wanted to achieve the following objectives across both AbbVie and Allergan: visibility and control of cash, consolidation of cash at a country level using a single banking partner, integration of country level cash into AbbVie’s consolidated cash pool and investment of consolidated cash by AbbVie’s in-house bank.
As a result of MISUMI Group’s business growth and improved profitability in each region, the company has the funds necessary for growth investments. But there was a trend of expanding in a mix of areas with surplus funds and/or areas with short in funds. For this reason, establishing cash management to support aggressive growth investments for further growth of the MISUMI Group was needed.
Solvay has made multiple acquisitions in past decades and while these acquisitions have extended Solvay’s reach into APAC, they brought with them legacy issues of paper-intensive processes and several bank accounts and other connections. At the heart of the problem was a complex operation in APAC. Different FX regulations across the region meant that profits were often too costly to repatriate, trapping cash in markets where Solvay was seeking to build its presence. China, where Solvay has more than 50% of its APAC business, raised very specific regulatory challenges for the company.
As part of its strategic goal, in 2023 Huntsman divested its Textile Effects division, a mature and cash-generating business unit that accounted for about 60% of Huntsman’s flows in Asia Pacific.
Like many other SMEs, Aqina Poultry was becoming more receptive to using digital technologies to enhance its business operation. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital solutions especially in banking services as traditional over the counter banking services were disrupted by restrictive measures such as physical distancing, reduced operating hours and movement restrictions. Digital financial services could effectively bypass those restrictions.
The company’s parent company, T7 Global received a contract, valued at US$88m from Mubadala Petroleum, one of the largest oil and gas companies in Abu Dhabi, to build, lease, operate and maintain a mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) at the Gulf of Thailand.
UltraTech’s treasury team is always looking to enhance cross-company business opportunities through excellent treasury operations. The team identified opportunities that can generate higher sales, better operational efficiencies, and a financially healthy supply chain ecosystem, all while enhancing cash flow efficiency and overall return on investments.
In 2021, Myer was operating under a traditional financing facility with a structure that was no longer aligned to Myer’s aspirations. To pave the way for growth, Myer sought a funding solution that would provide more flexibility to facilitate the continued execution of its Customer First Plan, whilst optimising its capital management strategies.
Victory Technology (Hong Kong) Limited (Victory HK) is the trading arm of the group. It had been a borrowing client of UOB China for four years under the AAA (a multinational company) Supplier Finance programme to finance its account receivables (AR) in USD.
Today, Xiaomi has a presence in more than 100 markets and operates through its local subsidiaries in nearly 30 countries, which brings many challenges. Xiaomi’s treasury has been playing a critical role in supporting the corporation’s global expansion projects over the years by leading, participating, coordinating and implementing in each market development. Risk management is the core of each project and is carefully considered and assessed throughout every process end-to-end.
There is no doubt that the automotive industry is coming out of one of its most challenging periods in history. Electrified vehicles are economically attractive, which leads to the entire global supply chain becoming more complex and diversified. Yanfeng’s treasury team faced three major challenges for making our business apart in the industry.
Asian Paints Ltd (APL) treasury team focused on opportunities that could generate higher sales, better operational efficiencies and a financially healthy supply chain ecosystem, all while enhancing cash flows and overall return on investments. The team faced challenges such as manual processes, resulting in human error, and limited digital capability, requiring additional support services. This demanded out-of-the box solutions.
Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) encountered some complexities in its treasury management processes. With over 100 subsidiaries and a global revenue exceeding RM27bn in 2022, the company managed a considerable operational load and extensive banking processes of more than 700 bank accounts.
From e-commerce to bricks-and-mortar retail outlets, SHOPLINE offers end-to-end payment solutions which include comprehensive payment gateways and e-wallet options. SHOPLINE payment is an integrated online payments platform that can save the merchants the hassle of dealing with third-party payment platforms.
In November 2021, GE made the decision to split into three divisions. GE HealthCare (GEHC) was first to be spun-off in January 2023 and started its transformational journey. There was close to a year window in which to get the project delivered with the eyes of global markets, media and investors watching this high-profile transaction.
Hitachi’s business has grown significantly over its 113-year history with the conglomerate operating across 60 markets today. But as Hitachi grew, it acquired hundreds of new entities that not only came with new suppliers, customers and banking providers in more locations but also with complex and disparate systems and operational workflows.
IHH Healthcare Berhad (IHH) has grown through several high-profile mergers and acquisitions resulting in a sub-optimal level of integration and non-standardisation of systems and processes across the group. The treasury function lacked clearly defined treasury policies, and the proper tools and structures to ensure better visibility and control of group cash to support the company’s next phase of growth.
HUL’s treasury team manages net liquid funds of more than US$1bn with average daily investments of US$36m for four legal entities. It works with a multi-layered liquidity management structure involving daily investment activities with 20+ banks, fund houses and market brokers, five investment instruments, 22 bank accounts and exposure in 19 currencies.
To deliver greater shareholder value and better serve clients amid a fast-changing and increasingly complex marketing world, WPP saw a need to review and simplify its global banking structure which had, over the years, amassed more than 5,000 bank accounts across its global operations as business expanded.
China Communications Construction Company, Ltd (CCCC) expanded its business and as a result has many overseas subsidiaries in over 150 countries with more than 2000 cooperative accounts, incurring enormous workloads resulting in lack of visibility.
In 2022, FrieslandCampina (FC) completed a series of investments and divestitures as it worked to optimise its production network and brand portfolio. It sold off its infant formulation production site in Xiushui, China to a local peer Yili Group. As a result of this sale, the domestic cash pool had an influx of cash. During this time, the company, faced with a considerable increase in commodity dairy prices, was forced to increase prices globally.
Complex account structure – General Mills has had a strong footprint in China for nearly 30 years with more than 400 outlets. The company has centralised its merchant acquisition and operational expenses payments to a single physical account for its entire China business. Due to the localised management requirement from the China taxation authority, each outlet still maintains local physical accounts (approximately 400) for tax payment purposes.
To support its procurement with global suppliers, BG Singapore required a tailor-made trade finance, foreign exchange and commodity hedging solution to cater for its diversified needs for trade settlement, FX risk management and commodity price risk management.
Foodpanda handles hundreds of thousands of orders a day and its explosive growth in the region had necessitated a reworking of treasury operations, which had comprised multiple banking relationships and a lack of automation on key processes which they wanted to address.
Mundipharma worked with DBS in Singapore and Hong Kong and wanted to consolidate its banking providers in Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan to a single provider to position themselves for possible future expansion into other Asian markets.
Far Eastern New Century (FENC) has committed to the circular economy for over three decades by being part of the green supply chain and maintaining marine ecology. While green and sustainability-linked loans (SLLs) have gained popularity in Taiwan over the past few years, blue loans are less-commonly used, as they are largely only offered to companies dedicated to improving water treatment and ocean protection.
As a master developer of community spaces, prioritising the community first is an integral part of Sunway’s corporate mission. As such, environmental and social consciousness forms a central tenet of the company’s philosophy, which it aims to incorporate into every aspect of its operations.
Thai Union Group’s diversified procurement and production approach gives the company flexibility to optimise its worldwide supply chain so it can deliver top-quality products to customers across markets in a timely and cost-effective manner. The company aims for supply chain excellence in its global sourcing and production platforms.
FMC India recognised a significant portion of Indian farmers, comprising of over 80%, manually applied agri-chemicals, leading to wastage and soil damage. Due to the absence of a physical presence in rural areas, the company partnered with a drone startup, General Aeronautics. This collaboration facilitates the precise application of insecticides on rural farmlands, curbing wastage, preserving soil health and preventing groundwater contamination.
On the back of Traveloka’s rapid business expansion, its working capital management and cash management needs have also increased. However, due to Traveloka’s extensive daily airline and hotel booking volume, they faced several challenges.
The pharma industry increasingly requires flexible and fast processes to make healthcare products and services more accessible. We recognise that certain processes – such as servicing customers face-to-face or relying on call centers and email to send and receive orders – are time-consuming, manual and resource intensive, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. The demand for product information, generating and tracking orders and returns, checking account status and managing payment with timely account updates are key requirements to be made available on demand 24/7.
With the creation of Corpay came an opportunity to reassess the systems and processes that laid behind the complex web of foreign exchange (FX) transactions that Corpay handles for its corporate customers.
Wearnes maintained 36 accounts across six entities in a variety of different operating currencies. Maximising yield on investable cash is a major priority for Wearnes. As such, the company is constantly looking for good investment opportunities. Considering this, Wearnes noted it was maintaining multiple idle surplus balances in four major operating currencies and realised these could be invested in order to generate additional income streams for the organisation.
