The questions
1. World economic growth remains slow. Has your company taken particular financial measures as a precaution against a prolonged downturn? What are they?
2. Most corporates finance themselves with a combination of loans, bonds and commercial paper. How do you decide on the mix that’s right for your company?
3. Many banks use credit derivatives to transfer their lending risk. How do you feel about banks doing this with your loans?
4. Corporate treasurers are being encouraged to place spare cash in money market funds rather than bank deposits. What is your view of this trend?
5. Has the overall service you get from banks improved, got worse or stayed the same over the past 12 months? What kind of further service improvements would you like to see?
1. The measures we have taken include cost savings/restructuring, a debt reduction programme, working capital management, limitation investment in property, plant and equipment, and a divestment programme.
2. We manage the mix – equity/debt; long/short-term debt; fixed/floating rate debt – on the basis of the asset mix, with a preference for the public market.
3. We don’t care. The volume is limited and the impact on us is negligible.
4. Not applicable. We deploy idle cash through international cash pooling and strengthened liquidity management.
5. Some services have got better, others worse. We would like to see improvements in the quality of back-office operations.