Ebusco - building up a complete treasury department
From a startup to a publicly traded company in less than ten years. A case study about building up a complete treasury department suited for Ebusco, an innovative company with a strong aim for growth.
About Ebusco
Ebusco is dedicated to the development, production, and bringing to market of fully electric city and regional buses and the associated ecosystem. Ebusco’s goal is to contribute to a better and healthier living environment by making sustainable, emission-free transport of people the standard. Ebusco is originally a Dutch company, with its head office in Deurne. At the moment more than 450 Ebusco buses are operating in seven countries across Europe, including major cities such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Munich.
Ebusco leads the electrification of public transport with innovative zero-emission buses by overcoming major obstacles to electrification and by being an industry innovator and first mover in a European setting. Since 2012 they have been producing 100% zero-emission, fully electric buses.
Challenge - From a startup to a publicly traded company in less than ten years
Growth brings challenges. Ebusco successfully went public in 2021. Through the listing, the company has raised around 315 million euros. By going to the stock exchange, Ebusco wants to raise money for further international growth. Last year, with the prospect of listing the company, the need arose to set up a complete treasury department, matching the company's ambitions for international growth. At this point Orchard Finance was called in.
Approach
After the successful listing process, Ebusco decided to follow a two-step approach: to search for a Treasury Manager and simultaneously to contract Orchard Finance to build up the treasury department. We started mid november 2021. In the first week we developed a Treasury Roadmap which was approved by Ebusco’s CFO before the end of November. Main elements of the roadmap:
Financing structure
Credit interest optimisation
Cash Management Structure
Treasury Management System (including payment functionality)
FX policy (including Trading platform)
Result - A complete treasury set up
In close consultation with Jan Hermans (in the meantime contracted as the new Treasury Manager), at the end of January we presented - based on several Requests of Proposals - the new Cash Management proposal (including the Treasury Technology solution) to Ebusco’s CFO Paul van Beers. Keywords for this proposal are:
One Ebusco way of working
Central control over all outgoing payments
Scalable and be able to support Ebusco’s geographical growth
Optimize liquidity by setting up cash pool structure
Cost Efficient
In line with Ebusco’s culture, a decision was made immediately and we could start implementing the proposed structure.
By mid 2022, Ebusco’s new treasury structure is up and running in around fifteen countries around the globe and day-to-day responsibility was handed over to Jan Hermans.
Thanks to a well managed process of all parties involved and a strong commitment from the Ebusco staff, Ebusco successfully achieved their goal to set up a complete treasury department. A future-proof department and ready for strong international growth.
‘’Orchard Finance significantly exceeded my expectations. We have a very efficient & pragmatic treasury set up supported by first class treasury software. Simultaneously Orchard realized significant cost savings.’’
- Paul van Beers, CFO Ebusco -
“Due to strong commitment from Ebusco’s board, we were able to set up a new treasury department in a very short time frame’’
- Guus Groote Schaarsberg, Senior Associate Orchard Finance -