Patrick Edwards Email & Phone Number

Australia

Not-for-profit organization campaigning for fair treatment of recipients of British State Pensions in Australia.

Sydney, Australia

I had volunteered to help at the Finance & Treasury Association, the Australian professional body got corporate treasurers. It was suggested that we should ask Tom Pockett, the CFO at Woolworths to speak at one of our events. As he had been my boss at Commonwealth Bank, I agreed to telephone him. Before I could invite him, he asked me "What are you doing at the moment?", I told him I had retired and he asked if I'd come for few months to act as Treasurer following the resignation of the previous treasurer and until they found a replacement. I agreed. During this time, Woolworths acquired a hotel (pub) business and then a supermarket business in New Zealand, each time extending my stay few months more. During my time at Woolworths, I managed a private debt placement in the US, new bank loans and arranged new supply chain finance.After Woolworths, I took a year driving from Sydney to London via Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and France.

Sydney, Australia

I was asked by Chris Cuffe (previously Managing Director of Colonial First State) to join him at Challenger, a financial services firm. I accepted subject to being able to take a long planned two month holiday travelling across Russia. Unbeknownst to him, a corporate restructure was about to occur and after six weeks, my position was taken by someone else. I received a generous pay-out and decided thereafter to take only short-term treasury consulting assignments.

Sydney, Australia

I was one of the first Colonial staff to make the move from Melbourne to Sydney.Capital Management covered regulatory capital, dealings with credit rating agencies and dividend policy. I saw a need to increase the calibre of the staff in the department and recruited new people to add to and eventually replace the existing staff. I updated the reporting system, which had previously relied on a lot of manual workarounds.

Melbourne, Australia

I was head-hunted to become Treasurer of Colonial, then a mutual life insurer. I oversaw the finance stream of the demutalisation and subsequent IPO. I negotiated with APRA the regulatory capital requirement for the first NOHC (non-operating holding company) in Australia.I managed the book builds and placements to raise A$232 million on the IPO (1996) and A$317 million (1998) and A$265 million (1998) to fund acquisitions and $226 million through a retail offering of stapled options. I arranged the issue of A$350 million Converting Preference Shares and $800 million of Colonial Income Securities.I arranged various debt issues for Colonial: A$160 million 3-year domestic bond issue; US$335 million dual currency syndicated loan (Asian and domestic markets; two US$150 million 3-year FRN in the euro-markets and £70 million 8-year bond in the UK bond market. I wrote and obtained board approval for credit risk policy for the holding company.Colonial was acquired by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) in 2000.

Sydney, Australia

I became to first Treasurer of GIO Australia after its privatisation. I managed a transactional banking tender that produced savings of over A$1 million pa. I arranged GIO's first debt raising after its privatisation (a 3-year syndicated loan). I was responsible for dealings with credit rating agencies. I managed a lending portfolio, which required daily mark-to-market of the loan assets.Then I received a telephone call...

Sydney, Australia

CCF was a mid-sized French bank. I had been introduced to the head of their international division and when he knew I was planning to move to Australia, he asked if I'd be interested in running their Australian business. I took 3 days off work in Hong Kong, flew to Paris to meet their senior management and liked what I saw.However, when I arrived in Australia, it was soon clear that the CCF Australian business did not have long-term potential so I recommended that the business be closed. I was offered a position in Paris and my wife and daughter went ahead to set up home in Paris and to arrange schooling. At the same time, my boss was promoted and a new head of international took over. He made it clear that he did not want an Anglo-Saxon working for him, so I resigned and my wife and daughter returned to Australia. I spent 18 months closing down the bank, which was interesting exercise of selling assets and finding ways out of commitments. All this at the time of a recession in Australia.

Hong Kong

I started with Jardines as an accountant in their Consumer Goods Division in Hong Kong, was transferred to Tokyo, Japan in 1975 where I was accountant for their shipping department and for various joint ventures in luxury products (Dunhill), investment banking (Jardine Fleming) and real estate (KK Halifax). In 1977 I was back in Hong Kong as Assistant Treasurer.In 1979 I was sent to Saudi Arabia to review the treasury activities of a 40% owned affiliate and saw the opportunity to establish a model corporate treasury department so I volunteered to stay and set it up. I set up reporting systems, arranged new bilateral loan facilities and established an improved cash management system. After two years, the department was running smoothly and I spent my final year in the turnaround of a subsidiary that had got into difficulties. I improved the reporting systems, documented proper operating procedures and recruited my replacement.I then spent 3 years in London, firstly as Financial Controller, then as Managing Director of a small bank.I returned to Hong Kong in 1982 as Group Treasurer. I reorganised the department, decentralising many of its activities reducing the head count from 40 to 16 (with no compensating increase in other divisions), improved the operating procedures and installed up to date reporting systems. My "firsts" included the first use of interest rate swaps by a corporate in Hong Kong, the first use of currency options by a corporate and the first corporate commercial paper programme in Hong Kong. I devised unique swingline bank loans that reflected the dual holding company structure of the group.Then it was time for my daughter to start secondary school and my wife and I had agreed that Australia was the best place for this to be done.