Financial risk management - SIG Annual Report 2020 (2024)

In the course of its business, the Group is exposed to a number of financial risks: liquidity risk, market risk (including currency risk, commodity risk and interest rate risk) and credit risk. This note presents the Group’s objectives, policies and processes for managing its exposure to these financial risks. Note 33 includes an overview of the derivative financial instruments that the Group has entered into to mitigate its market risk exposure.

Exposure to liquidity, market and credit risks arises in the normal course of the Group’s business. Management and the Board of Directors have the overall responsibility for the establishment and oversight of the Group’s financial risk management framework. Management has established a treasury policy that identifies risks faced by the Group and sets out policies and procedures to mitigate those risks. Financial risk management is primarily carried out by the Treasury function of the Group. Management has delegated authority levels and authorised the use of various financial instruments to a restricted number of personnel within the Treasury function.

Liquidity risk

Liquidity risk is the risk that the Group will not meet contractual obligations as they fall due. The Group evaluates its liquidity requirements on an ongoing basis using various cash and financial planning analyses and ensures that it has sufficient cash to meet expected operating expenses, repayments of and interest payments on its debt and future lease payments.

The Group generates sufficient cash flows from its operating activities to meet obligations arising from its financial liabilities. It has a multi-currency revolving credit facility in place to cover potential shortfalls and access to local working capital facilities in various jurisdictions, which are available if needed to support the cash management of local operations. The Group had unrestricted cash and cash equivalents in the amount of €353.3million (€254.9million as of 31December 2019) and access to an additional €299.4million under its revolving credit facility as of 31December 2020 (€297.4million as of 31December 2019).

The following table includes information about the remaining contractual maturities for the Group’s non-derivative financial liabilities as of 31December 2020. The table includes both interest and principal cash flows. Balances due within one year equal their carrying amounts as the impact of discounting is not significant.

The agreements with the Group’s notes holders and the lenders under the senior unsecured notes contain covenants and certain clauses that may require earlier repayments than indicated in the table above. The Group monitors the covenants as well as the aforementioned clauses on a regular basis to ensure that it is in compliance with the agreements at all times.

The interest payments on the senior unsecured credit facilities are variable. The interest rate amounts included in the above table that relate to those facilities will therefore change if the market interest rate (Euribor) changes. The interest rate amounts are also subject to change depending on the Group’s net leverage and the achievement of sustainability-linked targets.

The Group enters into derivative contracts as part of operating and financing the business. The commodity derivative contracts are net cash settled. Other derivative contracts are net or gross cash settled. The derivative asset or liability recognised as of 31December 2020 and 31December 2019 represents the liquidity exposure to the Group as of that date (see note 33). The cash flows resulting from a settlement of the derivative contracts may change as commodity prices, interest rates and exchange rates change. However, the overall impact on the Group’s liquidity from the derivative contracts is not deemed to be significant.

The following table includes information about the remaining contractual maturities for the Group’s non-derivative financial liabilities as of 31December 2019.

Market risks

Market risk is the risk that changes in market prices, such as foreign currency exchange rates, commodity prices and interest rates, will affect the cash flows or the fair value of the Group’s holdings of financial instruments. The objective of market risk management is to manage and control market risk exposures within acceptable parameters.

The Group buys and sells derivatives in the ordinary course of business to manage market risks. The Group does not enter into derivative contracts for speculative purposes. Hedge accounting under IFRS 9 is not applied.

Currency risk

As a result of the Group’s international operations, foreign currency exchange risk exposures exist on sales, purchases, borrowings and dividend payments that are denominated in currencies that are not the functional currency of the entity involved in the transaction. The Group is also exposed to translation currency risk arising from the translation of the assets, liabilities and results of its foreign entities into Euro, the Group’s presentation currency, from their respective functional currencies. The functional currencies of the subsidiaries are mainly Euro, US Dollar, Swiss Franc, Chinese Renminbi, Thai Baht, Brazilian Real, Mexican Peso, Australian Dollar and New Zealand Dollar.

In accordance with the Group’s Treasury policy, the Group seeks to minimise transaction currency risk via natural offsets to the extent possible. Therefore, when commercially feasible, the Group incurs costs in the same currencies in which cash flows are generated. In addition, the Group systematically hedges its major transactional currency exposures, using a twelve-month rolling layered approach. See also note 8.

The Group does not hedge its exposure to translation gains or losses related to the financial results of its non-Euro functional currency entities.

As previously noted, the Group manages operational transaction currency risk via natural offsets and by systematically hedging its major transaction currency exposures (by entering into foreign currency exchange derivative contracts). The following table provides an overview of the outstanding foreign currency exchange derivative contracts entered into as part of the operating business as of 31December2020.

The following table provides an overview of the outstanding foreign currency exchange derivative contracts as of 31December 2019.

The Group’s primary transaction currency exposure as of 31December 2020 and 31December 2019 related to an intra-group Euro-denominated loan held by a Swiss functional currency entity. A 5% weakening of the Euro against the Swiss Franc as of 31December 2020 (31December 2019) would have resulted in an additional unrealised foreign currency exchange loss of €14.1million as of 31December 2020 (an additional unrealised foreign currency exchange loss of €8.2million as of 31December 2019).

Commodity price risk

Commodity price risk is the risk that changes in the price of commodities purchased by the Group and used as inputs in the production process may impact the Group, as such price changes cannot always be passed on to the customers.

The Group’s exposure to commodity price risk arises principally from the purchase of polymers and aluminium. The Group’s objective is to ensure that the commodity price risk exposure is kept at an acceptable level. The Group generally purchases commodities at spot market prices and uses derivatives to hedge the exposure in relation to the cost of polymers (and their feedstocks) and aluminium. Due to this strategy, the Group is able to fix the raw material prices for the coming year for approximately 80% of the anticipated polymers and aluminium purchases, which substantially reduces the exposure to raw material price fluctuations over that period.

The realised gain or loss arising from derivative commodity contracts is recognised in cost of sales, while the unrealised gain or loss associated with derivative commodity contracts is recognised in other income or expenses.

The Group recognised an unrealised gain of €18.8million in the year ended 31December 2020 and an unrealised gain of €10.6million in the year ended 31December 2019 relating to its derivative commodity contracts as a component of other income. The Group recognised a realised loss of €18.7million in the year ended 31December 2020 and a realised loss of €21.5million in the year ended 31December 2019 relating to its derivative commodity contracts as a component of cost of sales.

The following table provides an overview of the outstanding commodity derivative contracts as of 31December 2020.

The following table provides an overview of the outstanding commodity derivative contracts as of 31December 2019.

There would have been an impact of €14.3million on the Group’s profit from a remeasurement of commodity derivative contracts as of 31December 2020 (an impact of €14.4million on the profit as of 31December 2019), assuming a 10% parallel upward or downward movement in the price curve used to value the commodity derivative contracts and assuming all other variables remain constant.

Interest rate risk

After the refinancing in June 2020, the Group’s interest rate risk primarily arises from its new term loan and drawings of the revolving credit facility at variable interest rates (see note 22) but also from its cash and cash equivalents. The Group pays a fixed interest rate on its notes.

Prior to the refinancing, the Group’s interest rate risk primarily arose from its secured term loans at variable interest rates. The Group had entered into interest rate swaps to hedge a portion of the cash flow exposure that arose on the secured term loans that were repaid in June 2020. The interest rate swaps were terminated at market rates in connection with the repayment of the secured term loans (see notes 22 and 23). The Group had not designated the interest rate swaps as hedging instruments, thus the fair value changes have been recognised in profit or loss.

The interest rate profile of the Group’s significant interest-bearing financial instruments as of 31December 2020 and 31December 2019 is presented in the following table.

A 100 basis point increase in the variable component (six-month Euribor) of the interest rate on the new term loan would increase the annual interest expense by €2.6million as of 31December 2020. A 100 basis point increase in the variable component (three-month Euribor) of the interest rate on the secured term loans that were repaid in June 2020 would have increased the annual interest expense by €4.6million as of 31December 2019.

Credit risk

Credit risk is the risk of financial loss to the Group if a customer or counterparty to a financial instrument fails to meet its contractual obligations. This risk arises principally from the Group’s receivables from its customers. The carrying amount of financial assets represents the maximum credit exposure. Historically, there has been a low level of losses resulting from default by customers. As the Group’s customers are in the food and beverage industry, management does not believe that there are any material changes to the Group’s exposure to credit risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The credit risk relating to trade receivables is influenced mainly by the individual characteristics of each customer. Given the diverse global operations and customers across the Group, credit control procedures are jointly managed by the Group’s Treasury function and each of the operating businesses within the Group. These joint responsibilities include, but are not limited to, reviewing the individual characteristics of new customers for creditworthiness before accepting the customer and agreeing upon purchase limits and terms of trade as well as regularly reviewing the creditworthiness of existing customers and previously agreed purchase limits and terms of trade.

The Group limits its exposure to credit risk by executing a credit limit policy, requiring advance payments in certain instances, taking out insurance for specific debtors as well as utilising securitisation and non-recourse factoring programmes. These programmes are further described in note 16.

In addition, concentration of credit risk is limited due to the customers comprising a diversified mix of international companies, large national and regional companies as well as small local companies, of which most have been customers of the Group for many years.

Management believes that the recognised loss allowance sufficiently covers the risk of default based on historical payment behaviour and assessments of future expectations of credit losses, including regular analysis of customer credit risk.

In line with its Treasury policy, the Group generally enters into transactions only with banks and financial institutions having a credit rating of at least investment grade (long term: A rating and short term: A1 or P1 rating, as per Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s). However, the Group may also enter into transactions with banks and financial institutions with a currently lower investment grade (long term: BBB rating and short term: A2 or P2 rating).