With the world in focus
The international technology consulting company Sweco – with projects in engineering, the environment and architecture, and active more or less all over the world – is behind the Swedish pavilion at Expo 2010. The company closely collaborates with SEB in several markets – a collaboration that begun back in 1897, making Sweco one of SEB’s oldest customers.
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Sweco is an acquisition-intensive company that has grown rapidly in the Nordic countries and in Eastern Europe. With over 5,000 employees, Sweco is one of the major players in Europe and market leading in several areas. The company conducts approximately 31,000 projects each year for about 10,000 customers. Sweco maintains local presences in eleven countries and works with project exports in more than 90 countries around the world – something that places demands on their financial partners. At SEB, they have received help with among other things, cash management, operational and acquisition financing, card solutions, as well as management of interest and currency exposure, bank guarantees and incoming and outgoing payments. Bo Jansson, executive vice president and CFO at Sweco has this to say about the collaboration: “In just the past five years, we’ve completed more than 40 acquisitions and the intention is to continue to grow in the immediate future as well. SEB plays an essential role in our expansion, primarily when it comes to development in Eastern and Central Europe. SEB has helped with among other things, financing in conjunction with expansion, even if our strong balance sheet has permitted us to finance major parts of the acquisitions ourselves. SEB has also contributed with a cash pool system for the Nordic and Baltic countries that we’ve utilised in starting our operations in Estonia and Lithuania.” And having a long-standing bank relationship has paid off: “What’s most important to us is that our collaborative partners have thorough knowledge of our operations. SEB has been with us for a very long time, and they know our operations and are very familiar with us, which is necessary for being able to provide effective business support.” “It’s also important to us that it’s easy to do business. Sweco’s operations are characterised by simplicity – we always try to take the straightest path, regardless of what we’re doing. Simplicity and clarity are even requirements that we place on our external collaborative partners. I think SEB’s employees are both perceptive to our needs and flexible, which enables us to jointly arrive at good, clear solutions,” says Bo Jansson in closing. |
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