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@ Paul Q

TREASURY

Corporates explore new options to release working capital

BY PAUL GOLDEN

February 18, 2021

Unpredictable receivables together with di}culty accessing traditional sources of liquidity have forced treasury teams to explore all possible sources of working capital during the coronavirus crisis.

The challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic have driven a move away from traditional providers of working capital towards alternative sources, such as institutional investors, as businesses seek the right ?nancing mix to tackle a new set of circumstances.

Institutional investors are also seeing the opportunity to provide liquidity to trade ?nance, says Michael Rieskamp, managing director, EMEA sales at Taulia.

“Trade as an asset class has been discussed theoretically for a long time but it is now becoming common practice,” he says. “This has been supported by developments in technology that can capture information and provide access to help institutional investors o?er liquidity where needed.”

“Foresight is crucial to ensuring progress at this more di}cult time”

MICHAEL RIESKAMP, TAULIA EUROPE

Apart from the usual options – which include delaying payments and applying to supply chain ?nance schemes – Enrico Camerinelli, senior analyst at Aite Group, refers to the emergence of a number of solutions for sourcing liquidity from inventory and employee salaries.

The ?rst of these is from Supply@ME, which has developed an alternative platform focused on inventory monetization.

“This can enable a wide range of manufacturing and trading businesses to improve their working capital position via a ‘true sale’ of their inventory to special purpose vehicles,” explains Camerinelli.

Another interesting solution is that o?ered by Hi55 Ventures. Pay asset ?nance is described as a unique way to release working capital by externally ?nancing a company’s payroll without adding debt to its balance sheet. This enables businesses to defer payroll and pay employees weekly, releasing working capital and giving swifter access to earned income for workers.

So, how often should treasurers review their existing facilities and explore options such as sale and leaseback?

Rieskamp observes that in his experience this is a constant process.

“The majority of treasurers will be aware of their current positions and forecasts and will have learnt over the past 12 months that foresight is crucial to ensuring progress at this more di?cult time,” he says.

“The pandemic has introduced new forms of unprecedented risk”

Bless Extrader replying to Extrader....

The FCA is in trouble at the moment for failing to do its job. It will be doing everything by the book.

I see the night shift are out. Just in time along with a twitter melt down. How convenient.

Hartle they need a qualified person to look at the accounts etc. They have a shortage and are working from home. They don't just do one job

Re read it they have a shortage of AR to do the work.

And this was pre Covid. They are now all working from home.

And this was pre Covid and they are now all working from home.

Exclusive: FCA drafts in outsiders to tackle authorisation backlog
Concerns have been raised about the impact on the regulator's battle against phoenix firms.

By James Fitzgerald
15 Jan, 2021

The FCA hired third-party compliance contractors to work in its internal authorisation team due to a huge backlog of applications last year, New Model Adviser has learned.

In April last year, New Model Adviser revealed that 158 new advice firm authorisations had been delayed by over six months in 2019, compared to only 55 in the whole of 2018. From 1 January to 29 February 2020, 28 had been delayed.

A spike in appointed representative (AR) applications the FCA received between November and December 2019 also delayed some advisers joining networks, as they had to wait up to 13 weeks for regulatory approval.

One compliance director, who did not wish to be named, told New Model Adviser this week that authorisations are still taking ‘at least six months’ to get rubber stamped.

New Model Adviser has learned that after suffering backlog of firm and individual authorisation applications over the last two years, the FCA brought on nine external staff from compliance firms to work on the regulator’s authorisations team in 2020. These firms are all members of the Association of Professional Compliance Consultants (APCC).

An undisclosed number from other non-APCC compliance firms were also hired as external contractors by the FCA last year.

The APCC is an industry body that has around 142 firms under its umbrella. These businesses provide compliance advice to firms, including authorisation and regulation advice and assistance.

When asked if its member firms were providing staff to the FCA’s authorisation team, an APCC spokesperson said ‘this is not something we are able to provide comment on’.

The FCA’s decision to hire third-party compliance staff raises questions over the regulator’s ability to handle authorisation applications – a process every adviser must go through at least once in their careers.

One industry figure said that bringing in third-party contractors suggests the FCA ‘does not have the capacity to do it internally’ and questioned how this might impact on the FCA’s clampdown on phoenixing.

Backlog
When New Model Adviser asked the FCA about contracting external compliance staff to work on its authorisations team, it said the introduction of the senior managers and certification regime (SM&CR) led to an influx of applications, and that it needed to draft in outside assistance to reduce the backlog of cases.

‘In the run up to the extension of the SM&CR to solo regulated firms in December 2019 the FCA managed the automatic conversion of thousands of roles held under the former approved persons regime to new senior man

No only yearly accounts are uploaded to companies house. The FCA have their own timelines as per RNS.

Stable share price, locked in traders and spread betters will be toast when it relists after storm harbour funding news.

Oh Seadog appears Extraders other account

Don't know is the simple answer.
In the hands of the FCA who have staff shortages and back logs.

SAM he won't reply to you. He is a paid troll here to bash Syme. He's on here and Advfn posting twisted lies to scare investors. Why post all the time on 2 boards about a share your not invested in?????

Will I wouldn't bother he won't answer you. He is over on ADVFN attacking Syme on there.

https://youtu.be/tWvK7CzGeAc

Extrader do you have a problem posting truth twisted to your point of view??? Ie a lie..

BTW you didn't deny you were a paid troll.

Extrader you have come on here and posted that on here and Advfn over multiple threads. Just goes to prove you are a troll in the pay of TWs crew

You still don't know oh dear...

You really haven't researched this share have you Wolf....