The Adam Smith Awards Asia, named after the famous modern economist, philosopher and author, are highly prestigious awards to recognise excellence and achievement in the corporate treasury space. They are developed as the ultimate industry benchmark for corporate best practice. And the category of Best Treasury Solution in China recognises the unique challenges of operating in the PRC.
Saint-Gobain APAC Treasury was selected among 221 nominations to be the overall winner of this category for our new cash pool implemented in China. After an RFP conducted in 2017, we upgraded our liquidity structure in China to an automated tax-saving structure associated with a cross-border cash pool under the PBOC’s nationwide scheme. The state-of-the-art solution helped Saint-Gobain China to achieve a significant reduction in value-added tax in our liquidity arrangement as well as in borrowing and transaction costs of all subsidiaries in China, and, for the first time in history, established an effective sweeping channel between Saint-Gobain China and France H.O.
On top of that, Saint-Gobain enhanced automation with our banking partners, including set up virtual a/cs, electronic supporting documents submission and e-BOP to improve reconciliation in AR process and further reduce manual paperwork in payment. Saint-Gobain has also re-negotiated interest rates on bank deposits and implemented money market funds to further increase interest yields on our surplus from time to time.
