Crisis Management: Turn to Banks or Capital Markets?
ABN AMRO 
Taal: Engels 

Financing and liquidity are at the heart of every Treasurer’s responsibilities. While for some companies working capital was ramping up during the COVID-19 crisis, for many other companies (expected) cash flow was impacted significantly during the lock down period. Also, visibility on the length and future impact of this crisis has become very difficult. Additional and alternative sources of funding were hastily explored by most CFO’s and Treasurers. Questions came up like ‘How much additional liquidity do we need and when do we need it?’ ‘How do we deal with the lending covenant management with our banks?’ ‘What is the best way to attract new funding? Are the state support facilities an option? Should we tap the capital markets?’ While many banks are supportive to increase working capital lines, they also look at shareholders to take their responsibility and chip in.

John and Maarten, ABN AMRO experts of Capital Structuring & Advisory and Equity Capital Markets, will guide you through all the immediate considerations and actions that companies may take in times of crisis. They will discuss the considerations of healthy liquidity and capital planning, as well as the approach towards banks and or Capital Markets. They will take you through a ‘one for one’ on the various liquidity scenarios, starting with a fundamental kick off: How to perform a ‘Mind the Gap Analysis’? Based on various characteristics of a treasurer’s company: Which key decisions to make around attracting new debt or new equity? Or a mix of new debt and new equity? What are the considerations to tap the equity capital markets (early)? What are typical structures, what does the process entail and do you always need shareholder approval? Would it make sense to in advance ask for a broader authority from your shareholders to raise new equity? 

John and Maarten will address various examples and elaborate on concrete case studies of companies that recently underwent this process and successfully raised funding.

Speakers: John Heijning, Head of Capital Structuring & Advisory, and Maarten Blomme, Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets.