Taipei Times (TT): Is cash management still a big part of doing business for companies, even in the face of declining revenues?
John Laurens: Cash is the lifeline of our customers’ businesses. That means cash is king. That’s never been truer than today with focuses on working capital management, cash and treasury management. Clearly, all the important aspects of cash management are around giving the feasibility of cash, managing it and making sure it’s secure. There’s also how one manages its operation efficiently, [whether its business is a big multinational or small-and medium-sized.]
TT: What challenges face businesses, small or large, in terms of cash management?
Laurens: In times of rapid economic growth, concerns or focuses are around how you manage growth in terms of sales or extending credit lines to customers and so on and so forth. In times of more economic challenges, the focus is around optimization of operations, cost efficiency, reducing cost and resources per transaction. The same applies regardless, in times of growth or economic challenges. It’s just the focus may vary. The beauty of cash and treasury management is that it clearly applies in both instances. A very important aspect of what was happening to the financial industry globally in the last six or seven months was that more companies paid more attention to cash and treasury management, [which is] no longer taken for granted. The crisis in the last few months has really elevated cash management in the minds of customers ... The importance of cash management, working capital management and all the linkages that we provide to our customers, suppliers making payments and our customers’ customers in terms of collecting money on their behalf.
So that’s actually been quite a stimulus for the business as companies looked more focused on strategic manners. The business has never been stronger. The current economic situation is actually proving to be quite beneficial in terms of getting customers’ attention on the importance of cash management.
TT: Can you give us an example or two of how companies have begun to appreciate cash management in the way you have mentioned?
Laurens: An interesting example [in Taiwan] would be Yuen Foong Yu Paper MFG Co Ltd (永豐餘造紙), which is looking specifically into data operation efficiency. One of the things they view from HSBC is liquidity management, which is helping them better manage their internal cash flow and using HSBC Net, our internet banking platform, to manage that more effectively. We’ve [also] got a lot in retails [including several] large highly recognized US branded consumer goods companies. Nestle in Asia Pacific was looking for help to re-engineer their treasury cash management processes. One of the things they were looking to do was to use SWIFTNet infrastructure, which actually delivers data to and from the bank.
But the important thing is they want to use a new standard in the marketplace. And the beauty of that is it is an open standard which means that corporate systems can talk to one other, corporate systems to bank systems and vice versa. We were able to — with our technology — connect products and handle those formats for them, which enabled them to centralize treasury and financial management processes.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”