Kimberly-Clark transforms Indonesian operations post-acquisition
Published: Feb 2025
Best in Class Treasury Solution in ASEAN
Highly Commended Winner
Kimberly-Clark Asia Pacific
Photo of Leonard Aw and Adeline Chua, Kimberly-Clark Asia Pacific and Joey Koh, J.P. Morgan.
Devesh Goyal
CFO, PT Softex Indonesia
Adeline Chua
APAC Regional Senior Treasury Manager
Leonard Aw
APAC Treasury Manager, GBS
Kimberly-Clark and its trusted brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Fuelled by ingenuity, creativity, and an understanding of people’s most essential needs, the company creates products that help individuals experience more of what’s important to them. Its portfolio of brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Poise, Depend and WypAll, hold the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in 80 countries. The company has been around for more than 150 years. It uses sustainable practices that support a healthy planet, build stronger communities, and ensure the business thrives for decades to come.
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The challenge
Following an acquisition exercise in October 2020, Kimberly-Clark inherited a decentralised cash management model across Indonesia. These companies were supported by multiple local banks, without automated connectivity to their Global Business Service (GBS) in Malaysia.
In June 2023, Kimberly-Clark made the decision to consolidate its treasury operations with one primary cash management bank for Indonesia and address the following challenges:
Visibility over local collection and financing bank cash positions – there was an absence of real-time positions and an inability to support host-to-host integrations.
Integration and alignment – Kimberly-Clark aimed to align the acquired companies with its regional shared service centre (SSC) in Kuala Lumpur, despite different ERPs and TMS.
Cash consolidation – Kimberly-Clark sought to automate cash consolidation from local banking providers into one global account.
Payment efficiency – the seamless execution of various payment types, including payroll, tax and statutory transfers, was a priority.
Manual processes – provision of supporting documents for cross-border and tax payments, together with manual reconciliation of accounts across the various banks added process inefficiencies and risk and control challenges.
The solution
Multibank cash concentration – leveraging multi-bank sweeps and API reporting, Kimberly-Clark was able to obtain near real-time updates on its balances and automated cash concentration into its main account from third-party collection and distributor financing local banks. This approach optimised cash positions and provided better yield management and automated forecasting with a cash flow intelligence programme.
Automation and integration – integrating two separate ERPs and TMS into one banking platform enabled Kimberly-Clark to consolidate trade payable transactions and achieve over 85% automation in payment processing, facilitating quick and secure payments and approving bulk payments.
Virtual Accounts – Kimberly-Clark customers have a dedicated receiving sub-account, aggregated under PT Softex Indonesia’s master account. This setup allows for immediate identification of payers, streamlines account reconciliation, and enhances cash application automation, with real-time notifications of payments received.
“Integrating systems following a major acquisition is never an easy task, especially in a market as complex and highly nuanced as Indonesia,” explains Adeline Chua, APAC Regional Senior Treasury Manager.
Best practice and innovation
Kimberly-Clark’s transformation of its Indonesian operations, post-acquisition, exemplifies treasury innovation. Facing a decentralised cash management model across multiple local banks without automated connectivity to their GBS, Kimberly-Clark issued an RFP in June 2023, with the aim of centralising liquidity and streamlining operations.
This initiative led to an improvement of 85% in payment process efficiency with the integration and standardisation of ERPs and TMS into Kimberly-Clark’s GBS through host-to-host (H2H) secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) connectivity. It saw a substantial marked improvement in days sales outstanding (DSO) with automated reconciliation of accounts receivables (A/R) via the bank’s API and Fintech solution, and 50% higher returns on cash positions with better cash flow forecasting. Not only that, but because of this solution, Kimberly-Clark has 100% access to liquidity via the Fintech multibank sweep solution.
Key achievements include automating multi-bank cash sweeps, enabling seamless execution of payroll and tax payments and deploying virtual accounts for enhanced transaction visibility and automation.
Kimberly-Clark’s best in class solution sets a new standard in treasury management, leveraging technology to drive substantial cost savings, risk mitigation and operational agility in global financial operations.
Key benefits
Cost savings.
Consolidation of cash management system and bank accounts.
Operational and process efficiencies.
Improved key performance indicator (KPI) metrics.
Return on investment (ROI).
Increased automation.
Risk mitigated.
Improved visibility.
Errors reduced.
Manual intervention reduced.
Increased system connectivity.
Future-proof solution.
Exceptional implementation (budget/time).
Joey Koh
Subsidiary Banking – Singapore Lead for Consumer & Retail and Business Services, J.P. Morgan
PT. Softex and P.T. MAN rank within the top three market positions in Indonesia across baby, adult and feminine care industries. Following Kimberly Clark’s acquisition of the entities and their brands, Kimberly-Clark recognised the need to integrate these entities into existing business and system processes with one primary cash management bank for Indonesia.
J.P. Morgan is honoured to have been chosen as Kimberly Clark’s partner bank, and collaborated in Kimberley-Clark’s transformation in as complex a market as Indonesia. We have witnessed Kimberly Clark’s commitment to pioneering innovation in the treasury service sector and congratulate them wholeheartedly on this award.
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The Adam Smith Awards Asia are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2024 awards attracted 406 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards-asia
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