Cash Matters

When two worlds collide

Peter Williams — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:25:50 GMT

Corporates are inhabiting parallel but diametrically opposed economic universes. One universe is a place of impending doom where the long talked-about wall of refinancing will crash down on them, sweeping their companies off to oblivion. In contrast, the other universe...

Time to act tough

Peter Williams — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:10:58 GMT

Quality data and relationships are holding back companies from gaining the control over their cash that they need. A survey among treasurers in global companies by Ernst & Young found a relatively relaxed attitude to areas such as funding, which...

Refinancing under public scrutiny

Peter Williams — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:08:38 GMT

When holiday company Thomas Cook went through its full year results to the end of September 2011 just before Christmas it said it was making its £891 million debt mountain “a clear focus”. Since then it has been in negotiations...

Collaboration is critical to future success

Peter Williams — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:54:57 GMT

I was recently fortunate enough to travel to New Zealand where I met a variety of people from the government and private sector. A couple of subjects dominated our discussions: agriculture and the role of government in supporting and indeed...

Building up the cash piles

Peter Williams — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:06:40 GMT

If the chief financial officer of your company hasn’t tapped the bond market, what are you playing at? Corporate bonds markets are humming with records tumbling particularly in the US. Every section of the market is getting a look in,...

Talking real money

Peter Williams — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:47:12 GMT

Reading the Breedon report on Boosting finance options for Finance reminded me of the quote from US republican politician Everett Dirksen: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.” At last, recognition that collectively...

A liquid question

Peter Williams — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:45:16 GMT

The power of rating agencies is a by-product of the credit boom, says Peter Williams, but to curtail their influence would be to deny the industry a vital source of informationProspects look grim for the rating agencies. After one round...

Unrecognisable banking

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:55:30 GMT

Life is changing for chief financial officers looking to define their lending and banking strategy. The news at the start of March that many homeowners were to face an increase in their mortgage rate, despite the rock bottom level of...

Planning for a euro crisis

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:19:24 GMT

Whatever politicians and central bankers stitch together in terms of a deal to solve the euro zone crisis, big business is taking no chances. Debating openly about the options in the event of some catastrophic default has now become acceptable...

Get back to the business of banking

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:19:38 GMT

Angela Knight, the forceful chief executive of the British Bankers Association, wants constructive results to emerge from the national debate about the future of banking. She condemns the “personal pillorying and lobbying of catchy but insubstantial sound bites”. CFOs agree...

Investor cash is at more risk than ever

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:19:48 GMT

It is easy to see why company investors should worry about cash: because chief financial officers are. The verdict of the latest Deloitte CFO survey reports that finance chiefs are due to spend 2012 worrying about how to increase their...

The return of 'Loadsofmoney'

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:58:22 GMT

Search on YouTube for ‘Harry Enfield loads of money’ and you will be transported back to the delights of 1980s alternative comedy. (For those too young, or otherwise engaged, to be watching Channel 4’s Saturday Live, ‘Loadsofmoney’ was an obnoxious...

Walking the tightrope

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:16:35 GMT

Sensible chief financial officers will be trying to escape the current strains of commercial life for a few days over Christmas, even if only to recharge for the joys that 2012 look likely to hold. No doubt for many the...

Osborne's supply chain finance wheeze

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:25:18 GMT

Chancellor George Osborne is letting business leverage the low cost of government borrowing. When the credit crunch first hit the banks were keen to push the ideas of bigger companies using their balance sheet strength to help their small suppliers...

SWIFT by name ...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:22:12 GMT

Corporations chasing cash visibility are looking to SWIFT to give them secure connectivity to banks and other companies across the world. The secure financial messaging service (SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) announced a few days ago...

So what's in the chancellor's credit easing plan?

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:06:52 GMT

At the end of November chancellor George Osborne is due to give his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons. It is the same day the Office for Budget Responsibility is due to deliver its economic and fiscal outlook. The...

A broken chain

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:50:23 GMT

The moment for supply chain finance (SCF) has passed. The idea came of age just after the credit crunch and the concept struck me as a fantastic one. Partly I was swayed by the consideration that CFOs - not often...

'Just-in-case' cash is proving costly

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:59:17 GMT

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Making the most of bank reform

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:05:09 GMT

Clinging onto the cash

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:31:20 GMT

Companies are fundamentally changing their cash-spending behaviour after fund raising. An academic study by an MIT Sloan School professor shows that in marked contrast to previous decades, US companies are not issuing equity to spend but instead to hoard. And...

Follow the cash

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:41:28 GMT

Figures from the banking industry show how business in the UK was on its knees in 2010. The British Bankers Association's abstract on banking statistics (published in August) underlines the consolidation of the UK banking sector. Although at 327 the...

Summer sunshine

Peter Williams — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:10:32 GMT

While investors confidence was pouring away from the US and eurozone economies there was actually a ray of summer sunshine for British business. Figures from the so-called Merlin banks published on 5 August suggested that the five are on target...

Out with the profit warnings

Peter Williams — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:55:32 GMT

CFOs can have few more unpalatable tasks than issuing a profit warning to the City. Announcing to the market that revenues and so profits are to be substantially below expectations is inevitably followed by share price falls and often the...

Setting the boundaries

Peter Williams — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:16:35 GMT

Barring some sort of banking crisis over the next few weeks, bank operations in the UK will be divided between retail on one side and wholesale and investment on the other. The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) recommended the move...

Don't bank on the relationship

Peter Williams — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:49:37 GMT

CFOs don’t trust bankers. The relationship has never been the close, cosy state of affairs that the marketing departments of banks would have us believe. However for years CFOs had nothing much to lose by smiling and playing along with...