HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER Best in Class Treasury Solution in

Vivo Energy Africa Services Casablanco, Issam Sadiq, Regional Treasurer

Imane Assakhen, Citi, Meryam El Jourani and Issam Sadiq, Vivo Energy Africa Services

InfoPool solution delivers across Africa

Company profile Established in 2011, Vivo Energy is the company that distributes and markets Shell-branded fuels and lubricants to retail and commercial customers in Africa. The Group has a network of over 1,800 service stations in 15 countries and exports lubricants to a number of other African countries.

The challenge The solution gives Vivo Energy the power to manage all its cash flow forecasting and analytics through a single portal, without the need to Vivo Energy operates in 17 countries in Africa, namely Morocco, log into or maintain multiple banking systems. It also improves , , , CDI, , , , efficiency through automation, simplifies integration with its ERP , , , , , , , system and reduces banking fees and hardware requirements. and South Africa. In Morocco, where it has been active and growing since 1922 and where its central treasury office manages over 200 accounts held with multiple banks, it distributes and markets Best practice and innovation fuels and lubricants. Infopool meets Vivo Energy’s needs in terms of control, reconciliation Vivo Energy had the following key objectives: and visibility through a single portal. The solution provides the company with a single interface to accounts with Citi and third-party • To achieve operational efficiency and control through a banks allowing daily monitoring of balances and transactions. centralised treasury structure. It is easily integrated with Vivo Energy’s ERP and allows it to automate • To ensure optimal treasury management by improving cash it’s reconciliation process across Africa at a low cost. visibility over 17 African markets where Vivo Energy had multiple banking relationships, numerous local and foreign currency “Through this solution, Citi helped us rationalise our banking accounts and reliance on local governance over relationships to increase cash visibility and control. This project has cash management. also highlighted numerous instances of best practice and innovation. Most notably, the level of collaboration between our treasury team “Given the amount of cash we move every day, it’s critical for us to and Citi was especially impressive,” concludes Sadiq. have full visibility over our banking transactions across all our entities and be able to centralise it in order to optimise cash management and enhance control,” says Issam Sadiq, Regional Treasurer at Vivo Energy Africa Services. “Given that we use several banking partners it is extremely onerous to retrieve this information from each bank’s eBanking portal and input it into our ERP.”

The solution Vivo Energy reached out to banking partners for an electronic solution Key benefits to address the challenges associated with centralised access to all their bank accounts. • Visibility and control over 200 accounts. Facilitated account reconciliation Citi proposed the InfoPool solution, which would enable third-party • banking information and transaction reporting across accounts to be • Improved integration with ERP. collated and viewed centrally in one platform, CitiDirect BE®. • Cost efficiency by avoiding multiple channels/electronic Through the activation of the HTTPS Automated File and Report banking platforms (capex saving of US$1.2m and annual Delivery (AFRD) solution on CitiDirect BE®, Vivo Energy has gained opex saving of US$0.2m). access to a server that consolidates all the company’s bank A simpler and richer reconciliation process. statements in the BAI2 electronic bank statement file format for • financial reporting, facilitating integration within its ERP system.

in partnership with treasurytoday Adam Smith Awards © July 2018