2015 tmi stars of cash & treasury management award

TMI | SPECIAL REPORT 23

GLOBAL & REGIONAL: THE NEW PARADIGM FOR TREASURERS

TMI has an established reputation for promoting best practicesand innovation in cash and treasury management andrecognising the achievements of corporate treasurers globally.

As a leading cash management bank both on a pan-European basisand throughout its global network, BNP Paribas espouses these sameprinciples. This year, therefore, TMI has been delighted to present theTMI Star Awards in association with BNP Paribas. The awards wereopen to corporate treasurers globally and decided in three regional

categories by an independent panel of experts chaired by HelenSanders, Editor of TMI. Award winners for each region were then putforward for the Global TMI Star Awards.Awards were presented at the EuroFinance Conference in Miami

(North America Awards) and at BNP Paribas’ Cash ManagementUniversity in Paris (Europe and Asia Pacific Awards). The TMI StarGlobal Awards were also presented at the Cash ManagementUniversity.

by Helen Sanders, Editor

Introducing the Stars of Cash & TreasuryManagementin association with BNP Paribas

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CASH MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY 2015

Campofrio Food Group (Working Capital)Readers of TMI will already be familiar withCampofrio’s working capital initiative (edition232) for which its treasury team has won aTMI Star Award. Like many companies,Campofrio Food Group had to reinvent itstreasury activities as a result of the globalfinancial crisis. Despite the Group non-investment grade rating and extremelyadverse financial markets conditions forperiphery-based companies, under LuisMontesinos’ leadership the company hasreinvented its treasury activities both toovercome the immediate crisis, andultimately to benefit from a virtuous cashflow cycle, as well as a responsible attitude tofinancing.

Firmenich (Cash Management)Firmenich has developed a sophisticated in-house bank over the past two years,leveraging the implementation of a singleSAP instance which is recognised by the TMIStar Award for cash management. The in-house bank includes a zero-balancing globalcash pool across 26 entities, operates anintercompany netting process, and centralisespayments through a payments factoryoperating on a payments-on-behalf-of(POBO) basis.

Honeywell (Liquidity Management)Honeywell was recognised as a TMI Star inliquidity management. Since the financial crisis,Honeywell has built a cash balance of $8.4bn,and it was becoming increasingly difficult tomanage credit risk to its 363 counterparties.Treasury has worked with its technologyproviders, SunGard, Reuters and SAP to developa sophisticated cash and investment reportingtool that has enabled Honeywell to take a morestrategic approach to liquidity management. Thisincludes unlocking trapped cash, reducing idlecash balances, diversifying investments andrevising the investment policy in line with BaselIII requirements.

Lafarge (Technology)Lafarge was the winner of the TMI Star Awardfor technology for its Connect project. Thisinvolved implementing a single groupconnectivity hub based on SWIFT connecting toeach of Lafarge’s cash management banks forpayments processing whether these areconducted centrally or by local business units.Users have a single sign-in and single approvaltool, enabling consistent controls. The paymentshub is configured to convert the file formats ofeach originating system to the relevant bankformat, so that existing formats and localpayment processes remain unaffected. Security,process efficiency and business continuity havebeen greatly enhanced, with significant costsavings as a result of eliminating a largenumber of local banking systems and interfaces.Lafarge is currently in the process of merging

with Holcim, a leading supplier of cement andaggregates.

Europe Awards

Luis Montesinos, Treasury & IR Director,Campofrio Food Group with Bozana Douriez,General Manager, BNP Paribas Factor withChristine Chartier, Head of StructuredTransactions, BNP Paribas Factor

Hervé Corre, Director Global TreasuryCoordination, Firmenich. with Marc Espagnon,Head of Payments and Cash Management France,BNP Paribas with Philippe Hohl, Head of CashManagement Switzertland, BNP Paribas

Séverine Le Blévennec, Director Treasury Europe,Middle-East and Africa, Honeywell Marie-AstridDubois, Assistant Treasurer EMEA & Asia,Honeywell Europe with Marc Espagnon, Head ofPayments and Cash Management France, BNPParibas

Valérie Sainsaulieu, Head of Treasury Control,Lafarge with Hubert de Solages, Global CashManagement Relationship Manager BNP Paribas with Helen Sanders, Editor TMI

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Abbvie(Technology)Abbvie has faced the challenging andexciting task of building its treasuryorganisation from the ground up aftercompleting the spin-off from AbbottLaboratories. With a strategic long-termvision in mind, Abbvie has demonstrated thebenefits of taking a ‘blank sheet’ approachto the design and implementation of a best-in-class treasury platform with a focus ontransparency of information, processes,automation, standardisation andcontrol. Abbvie treasury has been able totake advantage of innovative productopportunities such as SWIFT connectivity /XML; a global approach to payments, cardprogrammes, expense management, payrolland cash concentration products to fullysupport a best-in-class treasuryorganisation.

Albemarle (Liquidity Management)Albemarle is an excellent example of a next-generation treasury function that recognisedthat its liquidity management structure thatwas fit for purpose when it was firstimplemented was no longer meeting itsneeds as the business had grown andchanged. Consequently, treasury replaced anotional pooling structure with a physical(zero balancing) cash pool, resulting inconsiderable liquidity improvements.

Future Electronics (Liquidity Management)A global distributor of electronic components,Future Electronics, headquartered in Quebec,Canada, has successfully optimised its globalcash and liquidity structure. This has includedreducing banking partners from 13 banks inAsia and 25 in EMEA to one in Asia and one inEMEA. Future Electronics has implemented amulti-entity, multi-currency cash pool in eachregion, with timely and complete visibility overits global cash position. Several million dollarsof liquidity has been extracted, enabling thecompany to reduce borrowings. Treasuryprocesses at Future Electronics such asreporting and reconciliation have beenautomated and harmonised globally, which hasreduced costs and improved efficiencies.

McCain (Bank Relationship Management)McCain Foods, a frozen French fries and potatospecialties company with global footprint wasan early adopter of sophisticated, centralisedtreasury management, with a highly effectivetreasury organisation with a Switzerland-basedtreasury centre, treasury back office in Dublinand Finance SSC in India. The TMI Star Awardrecognises how treasury has successfullyrationalised its banking partners from 14 to 1,across 12 countries, and implemented a highlyefficient approach to transaction processing,liquidity management, bank accountmanagement, reporting and integration. Thishas resulted in major improvements toliquidity, operational efficiency and control,and a reduction in both internal and externalcosts.

North America Awards

Vignesh Chandrasekar, Director, Treasury Operations,McCain Foods with David Tonon, BNP Paribas with Marc Espagnon, BNP Paribas CashManagement

Jennifer Winkle, Assistant Treasurer, Albemarlewith Walid Shuman, Head of Cash Management -Americas, BNP Paribas


Sealed Air Corporation (Working Capital)As a global leader in a highly competitivemarketplace for food safety and security,facility hygiene and product protection,Sealed Air recognised the need to optimiseworking capital and unlock trapped cash tomaintain its leading market position. SealedAir worked with its four relationship banksusing a SWIFT, ERP and TMS infrastructurewith a view to accelerating andstandardising processes, accessing liquidityacross the group and lowering costs.

Vale (Cash Management)Brazilian mining giant Vale’s Global Cashproject has resulted in an efficient and well-implemented centralised banking, cashmanagement and SSC strategy. Bearing inmind the diverse, complex nature of thebusiness across Latin America, Africa &Middle East and Asia Pacific in particular,the success of the project has beenenhanced by the treasury’s ability tointegrate some of the more challengingcountries within its centralised treasuryframework, with the help of its globalbanking partners. In addition, Vale hassuccessfully concentrated USD liquidity inthe United States with an efficient accountstructure to enable payments betweenentities to be treated as book transfersrather than international payments,simplifying liquidity management andeffectively supporting the needs of the widerbusiness.

Helloworld (Technology)

Australian travel group Helloworld had aclear vision of its automation, efficiency anddata integrity objectives, but quicklyrecognised that it could not achieve theseobjectives without a transformation of itstreasury processes and infrastructure. Thecompany therefore decided to implementFinpacific’s cloud-based MyTreasur-e.comsolution in conjunction with Kondor TradeProcessing (KTP) in order to achieve bettervisibility of cash and liquidity, enhance riskmanagement and hedge accounting, improveaudit and compliance, automate processesand facilitate better collaboration across thegroup. Following a two-phase projectspanning four months, Helloworld hassuccessfully achieved its objectives whilstalso providing the team with a real-timeview of current and future cash positions,and supporting flexible reporting needs.

Ingram Micro (Innovation)

Readers of TMI will be familiar with IngramMicro’s collections project (edition 230) forwhich it has been awarded a TMI Award forinnovation. Ingram Micro India has workedclosely with partner bank BNP Paribas toimplement a sophisticated payments,collections and cash visibility project acrossthousands of distributors and 37 locations inIndia. In collections, for example, Ingram MicroIndia outsourced current and post-datedcheque collection and processing to BNPParibas, and implemented virtual accounts,known as eReceipt, for timely reconciliation,freeing up credit lines more quickly.

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CASH MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY 2015

Asia Pacific Awards

Meena Dafesh, Director of Treasury, IngramMicro Asia Pacific Pte Ltd with Marc Espagnon,BNP Paribas Cash Management Rupa Balsekar,BNP Paribas Cash Management IndrajeetMaitra, BNP Paribas Cash Management


In addition to winning TMI Star Awards inthe relevant regional categories, we wouldlike to congratulate the following forwinning TMI Global Star Awards.The quality was very high and we would

like to thank everyone who put the time and

effort into producing such compellingsubmissions. We look forward to featuringcase studies with our award winners infuture editions of TMI and presentingprojects that are still at too early a stage towin an award on this occasion, but look set

to deliver considerable value in the comingmonths. With many thanks too to BNP Paribas for

hosting the award ceremonies at the CashManagement University and for partnering TMIon such a successful awards programme.



Global Awards

“It is a privilege to be associated with the TMI Star Awards 2015that recognise innovation and excellence in cash, liquidity andworking capital management, bank relationship managementand technology innovation. As a bank, we are committed tounderstanding our clients’ challenges and delivering cohesive,pragmatic solutions by leveraging our extensive network, depthof expertise and innovative approach to technology at a local,regional and global level. As a result, BNP Paribas plays a vitalrole in enabling clients to achieve their operational and strategicobjectives and deliver award-winning projects.”

Pierre Fersztand, Global Head of Cash Management, BNP Paribas

Firmenich (Cash Management)

Future Electronics (Liquidity Management)

Ingram Micro (Innovation)

Honeywell (Liquidity Management)

Lafarge (Technology)

McCain (Bank Relationship Management)


2015 tmi stars of cash & treasury management award

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