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. We have assured that our liquidity is high. We concluded a new syndication with our core banks and established a securitisation programme that is compliant with International Accounting Standards. We have also fixed new objectives in terms of two-year debt reduction.
2. Diversification of funding is important. We limit exposure globally towards banks and look at the cost of funding for the different instruments.
3. We consider our core banks as our partners and believe that they should bear some risk on our company.
4. Money market funds are a possibility but in a partner relationship with banks, it is normal that most of our liquidity is placed with them.
5. Banks have to demonstrate that they add value for their customers. They should focus more on that, instead of speaking to their clients too much in terms of their priorities for a higher profitability. In more difficult times, like today, we believe that the winning banks are improving their overall services.