Dairy firm adopts Deutsche's online trade service

Deutsche Bank has announced that dairy products company PT Frisian Flag Indonesia has adopted its automated web-enabled trade payable financing solution, the first company in Asia to do so.

The online and automated solution – db-SupplierFinance – is the first joint electronic solution offered by its cash management and trade finance businesses, the bank said.

Using this service, clients are able to manage electronic payments to suppliers through db-eBills, the bank’s secure B2B electronic bill presentment and payment platform for invoicing and financial processing.

“We are offering this product to our corporate clients, not to finance them directly but to help them with the financing needs of their smaller suppliers,” says Shivkumar Seerapu, trade product management head for Asia Pacific at Deutsche Bank.

“We provide structured financing, based on the sale that takes place between the suppliers and the main company. Our automated solution enables buyers to negotiate longer credit terms with their suppliers; in addition bringing in a bank as partner to finance helps to ease the liquidity strain on the suppliers. Suppliers can also get access to financing at much cheaper rates than if they were to go to a local bank to borrow bilaterally.”

The automated service provides online access to Frisian Flag Indonesia’s suppliers to discount receivables; this enables them to actively manage their cash flows, monitor their receivables and avoid the long clearing durations normally associated with cheque payments.

A subsidiary of Dutch company Royal Friesland Foods, the company operates out of more than 27 Indonesian provinces and deals with multiple suppliers across the country.