Welcome to the second last edition of THE TREASURY HUB Banking and Treasury Markets Bulletin of 2020. While the year may be closing out, we still have the “minor” matters of Brexit and, for those in the hospitality and retail sectors, the Christmas run in. On the currency front, USD continues to hold in a EUR/USD1.1630 to EUR/USD1.1930 range. On the other hand, EUR/GBP has trended lower (strong GBP) since mid-September in the expectation that a hard Brexit will be avoided. This is expected to come to a head next week. From an investment perspective the DOW is now in positive territory for 2020 having fully recovered all of its March losses.

Against a backdrop of a reluctance to borrow more to get out of this economic slowdown, the Enterprise Ireland (“EI”) Sustaining Enterprise Fund (“SEF”) has gained a lot of traction, primarily due to the inclusion of a grant element of up to €200k (or 50% of the total amount sought if this is less than €400k). One of the aspects of this process is that the relationship with your EI Development Advisor can be important. Similar to your banking relationship advisor, it may be beneficial to spend some time in 2021 with them in improving their knowledge of your business.

Finally, section 5 in this month’s bulletin takes a look at Budget 2021 Considerations. Preparation of 2021 budgets should include some level of strategic business review for many companies. 

Please get in touch with our Corporate Finance team if we can be of any assistance.

The Treasury Hub - Banking and Treasury Report November 2020 can be downloaded here.

For any queries relating to this newsletter, please contact Chris Ball, Partner.