Real reason to be cheerful
The Treasurer’s Deals of the Year Awards should always be a legitimate reason for celebration. The winners represent and illustrate the best that the treasury profession offers and they demonstrate what value corporate treasurers can bring to their organisations and the wider economy across Europe. For the past few years this rightful celebration has been set against a background of almost unremitting gloom.
Those involved in the world of treasury and credit pre-2007 can remember days of easy terms and wafer-thin margins, with banks offering satiated corporates an endless supply of credit. While corporate treasury in those days wasn’t exactly like falling off a log, the challenges were very different from those likely to land on treasurers’ desks in 2012.
In the end, 2011 proved a continuation of the themes of volatility, turmoil and uncertainty. The improving conditions in the first half of the year were swept aside by a gathering euro zone and sovereign debt crisis. The most recent Bank of England figures (Trends in Lending, January 2012) suggest that the credit appetite of large corporates remained subdued at the end of 2011 and is expected to remain that way in the first quarter of 2012, with major UK lenders saying that syndicated lending continues to be driven largely by the refinancing needs of companies. But even refinancing keeps treasurer and banker busy enough and in such a climate is no foregone conclusion.
As we peer into what 2012 may have in store we can say that it looks like another busy year which will fully test the skill, experience and wit of all those involved in running businesses, banks and governments. But perhaps on the horizon we can catch just a glimmer of hope as slightly better news emerges early in the New Year over the euro zone, corporate earnings and economic data generally.
So while we continue to look realistically at the difficulties of economies and corporates, we should also take time out to congratulate those who have succeeded in such choppy conditions. To use the old cliché, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. The Deals of the Year Awards highlight the tough treasurers and their teams who deserve our congratulations for making such notable progress in such unpromising terrain.
PETER WILLIAMS
EDITOR
