Cash & Liquidity

Annapoorna Venkataramanan, head of treasury, risk, insurance and capex investments, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, revealed to CT the firm's strategy towards capital investments and treasury transformation in the fast-changing steel sector.

This idea behind the framework is to improve liquidity management and operational speed through six key policy areas.

In a pilot, Shanghai Commercial Bank issued a pre-authorisation on a co-loading freight forwarder’s commercial card so the main freight forwarder was paid within three days, and the co-loader has 56 days to pay; the bank uses the airport's cargo data platform for verification.

The US Fed has kept the interest rate unchanged while the US has agreed a 15% tariff rate with South Korea; the BOJ is anticipated to keep interest rates steady this week.

The facility has been designed to help mid-sized Korean shipping firms through time charter agreements; it is being supported by Crédit Agricole, Barclays and OCBC.

With fiduciary duty reforms and audit oversight changes now law, Korean corporates face growing shareholder pressure on capital allocation, dividend policy and financial transparency – placing treasury functions in the spotlight.

Kelvin Li, general manager of platform tech at Ant International, discussed with CT the fintech’s digital assets strategy to support large-volume, intragroup, cross-border fund moves.

As investors start pricing sovereign debt risk into long-term yields, corporate treasurers must rethink duration, diversify currency exposure, and prepare for a world where bond markets –not central banks – set the tone.

The pause in rate hikes was meant to bring relief. Instead, Asia’s treasurers are confronting a new kind of uncertainty – one where FX volatility, not funding cost, is driving strategic risk decisions.

The needs for treasury transformation and restructuring at firms in the SAR is growing.

The global pizza chain will sell 3.2% of its shares in DPC Dash through an accelerated bookbuild; it will keep a 3% stake.

Investment strategies, such as MMFs, are being reconsidered, while cash buffers are growing; meanwhile a major US court ruling could derail the tariffs.