The year ahead
January is nearly always a miserable month – holidays are over, the coffers are empty, you’re more likely than not on a diet, and so on. This year there is the concern about hard landing or soft, and as for those in the internet industry....
I have consoled myself with planning for the year ahead. There seems to be so much to do and so little time! The features from now until the end of the year are set: March will focus on Trade Finance, April on Cash Management, May is Securitisation, June Outsourcing, and July contains our usual feature on Careers. In the Autumn, we kick off with Compliance and Regulation, followed by Debt vs. Equity and then a Spotlight on IT and e-commerce. The December edition will include our usual Deals of the Year feature, as well as the review of 2001.
During the next couple of months, we will be looking at the nature of some of the articles and how we commission them, and hope before long to be able to provide readers with more news, information, and extra features such as book reviews. At the same time, we will be sure to keep the practical and informative articles which our readers come to expect. Due to the increasing support provided by our advertisers, we expect to be able to make more use of freelance expert journalists.
We will also be looking at some changes in the design and layout of the magazine. Long-standing members of the Association may be able to recall the look and feel of the very early editions, in 1979. The magazine certainly had a look of gravity and authority, enhanced by slightly grainy black and white pictures. That style lasted until October 1983 when colour was added to the cover, and each month had its own hue. The cover in ‘ACT blue’ came in 1996 and lasted until October 1997, when we reverted to the ‘if it’s yellow, it must be February’ option.
You may notice some small changes in layout and design this month (starting with this page) and we will be introducing gradual changes over the next few months. If you have any ideas or opinions on the nature of our articles, the design, layout and style of the magazine, please let me know. If you don’t, it will be too late to complain!
MIKE HENIGAN
The treasurer’s job is getting more difficult. As companies focus on integrated risk management the treasurer’s performance is more closely benchmarked, his decisions have to be backed by closely reasoned analysis.
Although medium term prospects remain satisfactory, the UK economy will face difficulties during 2001. David Kern of Kern Consulting assesses the outlook.
High volatility and declining US interest rates are enticing an ever-growing number of corporate treasurers to explore launching puttable-callable debt issues, or straight debt that contains a put-call tranche.
These are a selection of bonds announced recently. The details, updated to the middle of last month, were supplied by Thomson Financial Securities Data and other sources.
Aidan O’Neill and Ronan White, of Anglo Irish Bank Corporation plc, chart the bank’s debut into securitisation and provide some tips for first-time issuers.
Howard Goodbourn, Michael Turnbull and Russell Maybury outline the successful conclusion of the first re-marketable put bond to be sold in euros.
At a recent ACT seminar in Birmingham, Trevor Harrison of Fortis Bank outlined funding trends, particularly among smaller manufacturing companies.
Chris Bates of Clifford Chance summarises some aspects of the the new UK market abuse regime.
All eurobond and medium term note (MTN) issuers, whether domiciled in the EU or not, will be affected by the EU Savings Directive unless they issue before 1 March 2001.
Private placements offer a major capital source with relatively competitive pricing. Andrew Moorfield of bfinance.co.uk provides some background.
A private placement is a debt capital market transaction that generally has covenant features similar to a bank loan and is often used as an alternative to bank funding. Unlike a traditional public debt market transaction which is distributed to a wide range of investors and can trade in an active secondary market, a private placement is not actively traded. Typically a private placement is marketed to a much smaller number of long-term ‘buy and hold’ investors, with the deal eventually being distributed to between 6-12 interested parties.
Maya Patel looks at treasury-related developments in IT, drawn from recent announcements and press releases.
Business continuity planning (BCP) is one of those areas which you can quite easily
convince yourself that all is well, and that disasters only happen to others. A year on from the millennium bug some people may have become a little blasé about the need for BCP.
Piper-Anna Shields of Guardian iT Group reveals how to structure, implement and maintain a business continuity management strategy.
Tricia Munday explains how the need for disaster recovery led to the successful implemenation of a complete business continuity plan at Omnicom Finance.
Ken Lillie of SunGard looks at how the treasury department should be a vital part business continuity planning.
Dave Dignam, of Synstar plc discusses the issues involved in choosing between an in-house dedicated recovery facility or outsourcing to a specialist BC provider.
How would your disaster recovery provider cope in the event of a real disaster and are your IT managers up to scratch? Dave Claridge proposes a change of strategy
Jeremy Lewis of AON examines the benefits that insurance can bring to the business continuity plan.
Paul Philpotts of BSMG examines some of the key issues in handling public relations when a problem strikes.
After a bittersweet 2000, Sally Wilkinson of Daiwa SBCM looks at the prospects for the year ahead in Japan’s uncertain economy.
Clay Kinney of PwC takes a look at Japan’s new accounting policies as it strives to bring them in line with international standards.
Susan Skerritt of Treasury Strategies and Pat Leavy of FTI explain how pharmaceuticals group Elan went about reviewing its US cash management practices.
The Oceanus column this month focuses on the ways actuaries and treasurers may work together to gain a better insight into a company’s risk and its management.
We early retired folk find that the afternoon tends to drag until it is time for Countdown, and I have taken to watching the TV programmes that I have taped from the night before.
