Stena Finans Benefits from Integrated IT2 Treasury & Asset Management
AB Stena Finans, Stena AB’s finance company, has completed IT2 treasury management system (TMS) implementation to support both treasury and asset management operations. Stena Finans is taking advantage of the fully integrated IT2 solution to enhance control and reporting quality across its financial asset and liability portfolios.
Stena Finans’ treasury operations are diverse and sophisticated: there are 20 active IT2 users and 15 occasional reporting users. The organisation turns over a large annual volume of foreign exchange (FX) transactions, and activities in this area include extensive option based hedging. Stena Finans manages a substantial debt portfolio, which incorporates non-standard deals, plus interest rate derivatives. Additionally, IT2 supports cash management operations. A large number of Stena Finans’ legal entities are active treasury operators or counterparties, being involved in inter-company financing with the various Stena Finans units; many of them also have external deals on their books. The orgnaisation maintains relationships with about 25 counterparty banks, which reflects its leading position in a capital-intense industry.
Stena Finans’ significant asset management operation primarily invests in equities, equity options and bonds, and the portfolio is actively managed. IT2 enables Stena Finans to manage its investment assets together with its treasury positions in a fully integrated solution.
The IT2 implementation has yielded significant control and performance reporting gains to Stena Finans’ operation, in comparison with the prior solution, which was based on an older treasury system and spreadsheets. The information needed for reporting and analysis is now available in IT2’s single central database.
“Overall, we are very pleased with the progress made with the IT2 project,” said Torbjörn Sandblom, risk manager–treasury at the Stena Finans headquarters in Göteborg, Sweden. “IT2 provides a reliable solution, which generates consistently dependable results, enabling us to view the traders’ positions better, and to produce the required management reporting, with highly automated processes and workflows.'”
After upgrading to IT2 version 7.0 in 2010, Stena will evaluate broadening its use of IT2 to encompass bunker fuel trading and property investment portfolio management.