Logistics and supply chain finance: managing financial risks and optimizing financial flows in logistics and supply chains

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Logistics and supply chain finance: managing financial risks and 
optimizing financial flows in logistics and supply chains 
M. Com. Thuy Duong Dang 1 
1. Faculty of Management and Finance - Vietnam Maritime University, duongdt@vimaru.edu.vn 
Abstract. Logistics and supply chain management (SCM) play more and more important roles in 
modern world and have great potential for improving bottom line results. In the literature, there are a lot 
of contributions towards managing physical risks, information and goods flows while issues related to 
managing financial risks such as market risk, credit risk, currency risk and optimizing financial flows 
have not been discussed adequately. This article will focus on this research gap to enhance efficiency of 
logistics and supply chains by applying finance to develop the framework to optimize cost flows of those 
companies taking capital structure, cost of capital and various cost drivers into consideration and also 
recommending the use of derivatives such as forward or future contracts, swaps, option to hedge 
different financial risks that logistics and supply chain companies may face in global context. 
Keywords: Logistics and Supply chain Finance, risks, derivatives, hedging, financial flows, cost 
optimization. 
1. Introduction 
The modern business world has put logistics and SCM into practice because they are considered to be 
essential drivers of differential competencies for the companies and value maximization for the 
shareholders by optimizing goods, information and financial flows within a company as well as the 
whole supply chain. While there are many academic contributions toward issues related to the flows of 
goods and information, the financial flows were less paid attention. The integration of finance and 
logistics and SCM is research gap with huge potential to explore and develop both theory and practice. 
Logistics and SCM are applied widely in order to lower cost (65%) and increase revenue (25%) however 
not many companies know how to direct their investment in this field to maximize the business 
performance (D’Avanzo et al. 2003). Logistics and SCM decisions can have a great influence on the 
capital structure, risk profile, profitability and market value of a firm. Therefore, logisticians and supply 
chain executives are required to understand and communicate in the “language of finance”. 
Since the global financial crisis in 2008, it has been more difficult for logistics and supply chain 
companies to assess to commercial bank loans while those firms will require more and more capital in 
both short – term and long – term. The key to the success of a logistics and SCM decision is that the 
firm profitability is higher than its capital cost rate. Supply chain finance (SCF) solutions can help not 
only improve the efficiency of order cycle and working capital management but also reduce the cost of 
capital (CoC). 
According to a report by the Supply Chain Management Faculty at the University of Tennessee, in a 
survey among over 150 different supply chain managers, none of them hired external experts outside to 
assess their supply chains risks; 90% of companies do not quantify risk when outsourcing production; 
and 100% of supply chain executives considered insurance as a highly effective risk mitigation tool, but 
it was not in their purview. The study also analyzed over 800 supply chain disruptions that occurred 
from 1989 to 2000. Firms that experienced major supply chain disruptions saw the following 
consequences: Sales were reduced 93%, and share returns were 33-40 % lower over a three-year period; 
Stock price volatility was 13.5% higher; Operating income reduced by 107%; and Return on Assets 
(ROA) declined by 114%. By nature, risks cannot be completely eliminated but they can be identified 
and mitigated. Many research findings (e.g. Meulbroek JACF 2002 and Stulz JACF 1996) noted that 
risk management can and does add value to the firms. 
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This paper examines the importance of financial flows and the impact of logistics and SCM on these
flows regarding cost of capital and risk management perspective. Firstly, based on the SCF framework,
SCF solutions are analyzed in regard to some case studies from different perspectives of small and
medium size companies in supply chains (SME), logistics service providers (LSP) and financial
institutions (FI). Secondly, this paper will analyze generally how logistics and supply chain risks can be
hedged by employing derivatives.
2. Background literature
SCF is an innovative model with significant applications dealing with the financial flow of a supply
chain in the modern business world. Stemmler and Seuring regarded the term of “supply chain finance”
as the financial flows control and optimization induced by logistics. Gomm (2010) defined SCF as
optimizing the financial structure and the cash-flow within the supply chain. More specific definition is
stated by Pfohl and Gomm (2009) as “the inter-company optimization of financing as well as the
integration of financing processes with customers, suppliers, and service providers in order to increase
the value of all participating companies”. According to Gomm, SCF’s target is to reduce the cost of
capital and improve cash flow by the financial process optimization across company borders. Stenzel
noted that “logistics financing” creates more opportunities of competence for LSPs. SCF literature can
be divided into two aspects. The typical qualitative research is a framework for financial issues in SCM
proposed by Gomm and quantitative approach is a mathematical model developed by Pfohl and Gomm.
3. Logistics and Supply Chain Finance framework
SCF approach suggests both financial and operating collaborations within supply chain members and
financial market to reach the optimal decisions.
Figure 1 SCF approach - Source: Hofmann, E. (2005)
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Figure 2 Integration of SCF into SCM - Source: Gomm (2010)
In order to increase the value of a single company as well as the overall supply chain, there should be
an optimization combining three major financial aspects of SCF: order cycle management, working
capital management and financing of fixed assets.
Figure 3 The SCF cube - Source: Gomm (2010)
SCF solutions decrease cost of capital and maximize firm value by reducing three dimensions of
financing: duration, volume and capital cost rate.
There are many market segments in SCF offering business and investment opportunities for different
players including platform providers acting as technology components such as Prime Revenue, Orbian,
Bolero, CGI Proponix,...; transactional risk managers for example UPS Logistics provider and Instream
– a credit data processor; finance providers such as JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, GE commercial finance
etc.
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Case study: SCF program at P&G
Figure 4 SCF process at P&G (Source: P&G)
P&G developed this modern financing way with many strong benefits for its suppliers which can be
SMEs by selling their P&G receivables to receive non – resource cash at an attractive discount rate. In
addition to the discount rate that the suppliers are charged on the face value of the receivable, there are
no other fees associated with this program for example joining, maintenance or exit and banking fees.
SCF banks including Citi Bank, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan are liquidity providers in P&G’s SCF
program which offers an effective financial tool to P&G’s External business partners (EBPs). The
determined discount rate is based on LIBOR plus the bank spread which depends on P&G’s credit rating.
The key point is that the annual discount rate is normally significantly lower than EBP’s weighted
average cost of capital (WACC) and can be lower in comparison with short term debt interest rate
because P&G often has better credit rating than its EBPs which are SMEs. By implementing this
program, suppliers receive the payments early to lower Days sales outstanding (DSO), optimize working
capital and improve liquidity without increasing debt, reduce cost of financing as can be seen from
Figure 5 below.
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Figure 5 Cost saving estimation – Source: P&G
The program leverages P&G’s credit rating, solves its suppliers’ liquidity management challenges
during GFC because strict and demanding banking requirements make their cash flows stressed when
financing the extended payment terms, saves a huge amount of financing cost. It also can be considered
as a good tool to mitigate risks.
4. Financial Risk Management in Logistics and Supply Chain
L. K. Meulbroek 2002 introduced a guide to integrated risk management approach and suggested that
risk management can add more value when the firms identify and assess collective risks and implement
firm – wide strategy to manage those risks, aggregate risks to account for inter-relationships and make
operating, capital structure decisions and financial derivatives usage jointly. There are a limited number
of applications of derivatives in managing the risks confronted by logistics and supply chains such as
freight rate risk, interest rate risk, exchange rate risk, market risk of commodity price and energy price,
uncertainty of demand, counterparty risk, etc. This section will analyze some typical risks and
recommend to hedge by using derivatives products instead of insurance policies.
Natural disasters and catastrophic bonds (CAT bonds)
Extreme events such as flood, earthquake, wildfire, hurricane, tsunami, etc. can cause serious disruptions
and huge losses for logistics and supply chain firms. Insurance (and reinsurance) is the most popular
way for the companies to mitigate the impact of such catastrophic risks but in many cases, the capital
capacity of insurance and reinsurance companies is not enough to underwrite extreme losses. CAT bond
is security innovation which can assess to larger pool of capital from big institutional investors with
attractively high yield.
Customer demand uncertainty risks and Separating options from supply contracts
Demand uncertainties can have a negative influence on the operation and financial performance of a
company by causing under production resulting in losing sales and over production leading to excessive
inventory. Some policies and terms in a supply contract such as buyback and quantity flexibility
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conditions act as “embedded options” which have a number of limitations in risk management. A firm
not only can operationally manage the risk but also reduce it financially with derivative instruments.
Shi, D. et al. 2004 introduced a simple call option whose underlying asset is the customer demand level.
They proved that with greater flexibility in comparison with embedded options, this derivative can
facilitates risk sharing and risk taking among different supply chain partners, financial intermediaries
such as banks, hedge funds, insurance companies etc. which have various risk appetites and risk bearing
ability, therefore, enhance the whole supply chain coordination and performance.
Freight rate risk and Freight rate derivatives
The major part of a transportation logistics companies’ income is freight rate. The operating cash flows
and profitability of a shipping company for example will highly exposure to the freight rate uncertainty.
The research by Stefan, A. et al. 2011 indicates that the volatility of freight prices is much higher than
that of equity or bond and also cyclical, seasonal. Besides, its distribution shows “fat tails” and negative
skewness. Especially, during GFC (global financial crisis), the standard deviation of freight rate leapt
significantly.
There are many compound factors affecting the change in the derived demand for freight services, for
instance, global economy, and international trade, the seasonality of commodity consumption and
markets, vehicle or vessel size and contract maturity.
Common freight rate derivatives such as forward freight agreements (FFA), freight rate future contracts
and freight rate options can be more flexible and cost – effective solution to hedge risk and integrate
with the classic methods of operation management and capital structure adjustment.
The Baltic Exchange provides information and indexes of maritime transportation markets which are
used for the trade and settlement of derivatives contracts. BIFFEX (the Baltic International Freight
Futures Exchange) is an organized exchange located in London trading ocean freight futures contracts
which are settled based on the Baltic Freight Index.
CME Group is one of the largest options and futures exchanges. FFAs offered by CME group are divided
into two main groups: wet freight for different routes (Baltic and Platts) and dry freight based on
different time charter index made public by Baltic exchange.
Wet freight options designed for different routes are European type and settled at average price.
Additional tailor - made products are being developed to meet various requirement of all ranges of
market participants.
In the past, most freight derivatives were traded by the network of dealers in OTC (over – the – counter)
market. Nowadays, more and more futures and options are traded on or traded off and then cleared
through standardized exchanges such as NYMEX.
Asset Value Risk and Scrap Derivatives
One typical example is that ship owners can manage vessel value by employing forward products such
as FOSVA (Forward Ship Value Agreement) which are cash settled contracts, similar to the structure of
plain vanilla FFAs and whose underlying assets ‘prices are based on BSPA index (the Baltic Sale and
Purchase Assessments). The drawback of this market is that it is less liquid than the traditional forwards
market.
Another index of demolition values is BDA (the Baltic Exchange Demolition Assessments) which can
be treated as the underlying assets of derivative instruments created to trade on vessel scrap.
5. Conclusion and Recommendation
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One common issue of SMEs in supply chains is capital constraint. SCF opens the access to cheaper
sources of fund by taking the advantage of the gap in the refinancing interest rates of different companies
in the same supply chain due to credit rating and solving agency problem caused by information
asymmetries between supply chain insiders and external parties from financial market. SCF solutions
create a win – win situation for all involved participants by converting supply chain information and
knowledge into accelerated value by improving financing methods and reducing risks.
In the volatile business environment, depending on risk appetites and comparative advantages, logistics
and supply chain companies have to determine which risks and how much risk should be borne and
managed internally, which risks should be transferred to financial market who can bear the risks at lower
cost and in more efficient way. More and more sophisticated and innovative financial instruments have
been designed to satisfy the various demand of risk management and diversifying alternative investment.
However, both risk managers and investors must understand and be cautious when using those tools
because of their complex structures with attractive and flexible characteristics.
In Vietnam, logistics and supply chain industry seeks lending capital from commercial banks which
offer very simple and basic products with strict financial requirements. There is a lack of SCF
application to leverage and exploit the potential of logistics and supply chains to achieve the sustainable
economic development. The recommendation would be further research and cooperation at both micro
and macro level between logistics, SCM with financial services providers such as investment banks,
hedge funds, and insurance companies etc. to develop variety of comprehensive SCF solutions to replace
the classical one – size – fits - all method.
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