CapitaLand designs a blueprint for growth with HSBC

CapitaLand Group (CapitaLand) is one of Asia’s largest diversified real estate groups.

Headquartered in Singapore, CapitaLand’s portfolio focuses on real estate investment management and real estate development, and spans across over 260 cities in more than over 40 countries.

Their treasury entities are based in Singapore, which manage day-to-day cash management and funding requirements for the respective businesses within the group.

As part of a global transformation initiative to facilitate scalable expansion, CapitaLand’s treasurers recognised the need to revamp certain treasury procedures to help ensure that they could continue servicing their group’s financial needs efficiently. Embarking on an internal process review since 2021, CapitaLand identified payment automation as a key area for improvement to optimise treasury and finance processes.

Payments for entities were mostly raised via manual instructions or multiple online banking portals, which was cumbersome, time-consuming, and carried higher risk from error.
To achieve financial agility and resilience, CapitaLand recognised the value of maintaining centralised visibility on regional funds by working with a reliable regional partner.

Upon a review of prospective banks, CapitaLand selected HSBC as one of their regional partners for this initiative as a result of our matching geographic footprint, and breadth of capabilities in the region. CapitaLand consolidated accounts in Singapore, India, Malaysia and Vietnam to a single profile with HSBC, which allowed them to gain centralised real-time visibility on cash positions for entities in these markets through HSBCnet, our online banking portal. This arrangement was further enhanced with a regional host-to-host connection covering all 4 markets, which feeds real-time account information from HSBCnet into CapitaLand’s SAP S4 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The host-to-host connection also allows them to automate payment initiation by transmitting payment files directly from their ERP to HSBC, achieving a fully-automated payment process for all involved accounts.

Throughout the project, CapitaLand was supported by a single regional point of contact in Singapore, who coordinated various documentation and technical requirements with corresponding project managers in each market of operation. This support model enables streamlined communication, while ensuring that the solution could adhere to specific operational requirements in each market, which proved critical in the timely execution of documents on account opening and adjustments to the implementation plan in line with CapitaLand’s business needs.

• 100% real-time visibility on cash positions in project accounts across Asia Pacific on a centralised interface
• Fully-automated payment initiation process reduces risk of error, and streamlines administration
• Single point of contact, with on-the-ground support in all markets to ensure strong project governance
• Well-positioned for growth through with a reliable regional partner with a matching network and suitable capabilities