Headaches include dividend repatriation, obstacles to execution of business contingency plans.
Repatriating dividends from China, India, Thailand and other countries is proving difficult for some treasury teams in Asia that are seeking to bolster their companies’ global liquidity in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
- That takeaway and others emerged during a virtual meeting of treasurers in Asia facilitated by NeuGroup on Monday. Members at companies that had business continuity plans in place and had done stress testing before the crisis discussed some of the unforeseen consequences of this catastrophic outbreak.
Tax and audit issues. Few if any members assumed that the need for tax clearance and a full audit would thwart efforts to repatriate dividends. But the inability to access auditors and the closure of government tax offices has indeed made life difficult for some companies.
- Treasury at one company solved the repatriation problem by doing back-to-back lending—leaving cash in China as a pledge to secure a loan to a subsidiary elsewhere.
New assumptions for stress tests. The repatriation issue underscores how the scope and effects of this pandemic exceeded the assumptions of many stress tests. As a result, companies are taking a hard look at those assumptions and making changes to reflect the new reality.
- One company, for example, is now looking at how to build a cash buffer that will sustain it for two months without cash collection, up from one month under the old liquidity stress test assumption.
BCP steps: Not so simple. One member offered up an example of something in a business continuity plan that seems simple but is not working as advertised: The company had planned to shift some processes to India during the crisis but could not because logistical problems prevented the shipment of bank tokens there—meaning no access to the banking network.
Banks and documents. While some banks are accepting electronic signatures and the use of DocuSign, many are not, creating delays for corporates that then must get physical signatures and mail them to the bank. That raises the question of how far your banks will bend during this enormous disruption to business norms.
Business health. Companies in some industries have been devastated by the economic effects of the crisis. But among NeuGroup members, some at this meeting described doing quite well, particularly those in the technology and health care sectors. And only a small minority are considering the benefits of accepting government assistance.
Balancing act. On a personal level, members of treasury teams in Asia are confronting the same challenges of working at home described at all recent NeuGroup virtual meetings, especially by those with children who must be supervised because schools are closed. It’s another example of how the length and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak is forcing finance teams to adapt creatively to circumstances that everyone hopes will be much different by the second half of 2020 if not sooner.
