Treasury & Trade Finance

Sophisticated Cash Management for Complex Groups

For multinational groups with multi-currency exposures, complex intercompany flows, or trade finance requirements, Aurevya designs and manages integrated treasury solutions using Mauritius as the hub.

Overview

Mauritius as a Treasury Hub

Mauritius's combination of a sophisticated banking sector, comprehensive treaty network, FSC-regulated environment, and strategic location between Africa and Asia makes it an ideal location for centralised treasury functions. International groups that consolidate treasury operations through a Mauritius entity gain both administrative efficiency and material tax advantages, reducing the cost of capital, managing foreign exchange risk centrally, and optimising the deployment of liquidity across the group.

Aurevya advises on the design and implementation of cash pooling arrangements, in-group lending structures with appropriate transfer pricing, hedging strategies for currency risk, and trade finance facilities for import/export operations across Africa and Asia. Our approach to treasury is holistic, we assess the commercial requirements of the group, design the appropriate structure, put the banking facilities in place, draft the intercompany documentation, and provide ongoing treasury administration.

Our treasury practice works closely with our tax and legal teams to ensure that treasury structures deliver real economic value without creating unintended regulatory or tax exposure. The transfer pricing of intercompany loans, the arm's-length basis of fee arrangements, and the BEPS-compliance of the overall treasury structure are assessed and documented from the outset.

Multi
Currency Operations
USD, EUR, GBP, and local African and Asian currency management, through Mauritius's internationally connected banking sector with strong correspondent banking relationships.
Cash
Pooling Available
Notional and physical cash pooling structures for group liquidity management, concentrating surplus funds at the Mauritius treasury centre and deploying them efficiently across the group.
Trade
Finance Facilitated
Letters of credit, documentary collections, trade loans, and supply chain finance, facilitating import and export operations across Africa, Asia, and beyond.

What We Provide

Key Features of Our Treasury Service

Cash Pool Design
We design notional and physical cash pooling structures that consolidate group liquidity at the Mauritius treasury centre, enabling surplus funds to be deployed across the group efficiently, minimising the need for external financing and maximising the return on idle cash balances.
Intercompany Lending
We design and document in-group lending structures, ensuring that intercompany loans are priced on arm's-length terms, properly documented in legally enforceable loan agreements, and structured to comply with transfer pricing requirements in all relevant jurisdictions.
Currency Hedging Advisory
For groups with material foreign currency exposures, particularly those operating across African markets with volatile local currencies, we advise on hedging strategies using forward contracts, options, and natural hedging techniques to manage currency risk at the treasury level.
Trade Finance
Working with Mauritius's banking sector, we facilitate the establishment of trade finance facilities for clients engaged in import/export operations, including letters of credit, documentary collections, bank guarantees, and pre- and post-shipment financing for transactions across Africa and Asia.
Payment Hub Structures
For multinational groups seeking to centralise payment processing, reducing banking costs, improving payment controls, and streamlining cross-border remittances, we design Mauritius-based payment hub structures supported by the appropriate banking relationships and operational framework.
Cross-Border Remittances
Mauritius's banking sector and FSC-regulated environment facilitate efficient cross-border remittances across a wide range of currencies and jurisdictions, enabling groups to move capital into and out of Africa and Asia with a level of reliability and compliance confidence that is difficult to achieve through many alternative jurisdictions.

Process

How It Works

01
Treasury Needs Assessment
We conduct a detailed assessment of the group's treasury requirements, mapping existing cash flows, foreign currency exposures, financing needs, and trade finance requirements, to design the optimal treasury structure for the group's specific profile.
02
Structure Design
Based on the needs assessment, we design the treasury structure, specifying the entity type, ownership, intercompany relationships, and banking facilities required, together with the tax and transfer pricing framework that governs the structure's operation.
03
Banking Facility Arrangement
We work with Aurevya's banking facilitation team to establish the required banking facilities for the treasury entity, including multi-currency accounts, cash pooling facilities, trade finance lines, and foreign exchange facilities, through our established banking relationships.
04
Intercompany Agreement Drafting
All intercompany relationships, loan agreements, treasury service agreements, cash pooling agreements, are documented in legally enforceable agreements, drafted by Aurevya's legal team on arm's-length terms consistent with the agreed transfer pricing methodology.
05
Ongoing Treasury Administration
Once operational, Aurevya provides ongoing treasury administration, including cash flow monitoring, intercompany payment processing, trade finance document handling, and periodic treasury reporting, ensuring that the treasury function operates efficiently throughout the year.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

A cash pooling structure is a treasury arrangement whereby the cash balances of multiple entities within a group are consolidated at a central treasury entity, either physically (where balances are actually transferred to the pool) or notionally (where balances are offset against each other for interest calculation purposes without physical transfer). Cash pooling reduces the group's overall external borrowing requirements by allowing entities with surplus liquidity to fund those with deficits, replacing expensive external debt with low-cost intercompany lending. The Mauritius treasury entity acts as the pool header, holding the consolidated cash position and managing intercompany liquidity flows within the group.
Yes, a GBC is well-suited to act as a group treasury centre. Its Mauritius tax residency allows it to benefit from the DTAA network, including reduced withholding taxes on interest received from group subsidiaries in treaty jurisdictions. The 80% partial exemption is available on qualifying interest income, reducing the effective tax rate on treasury income to 3%. The GBC can hold multi-currency bank accounts, enter into intercompany loan and cash pooling agreements, and provide treasury services to related entities within the group. Aurevya designs GBC-based treasury structures that are both commercially effective and BEPS-compliant, with appropriate substance and transfer pricing frameworks.
A Mauritius GBC acting as a treasury entity can lend funds to other members of the group, charging interest at an arm's-length rate consistent with transfer pricing requirements. The interest received by the Mauritius entity benefits from the 80% partial exemption regime, giving an effective Mauritius tax rate of 3%. Interest payments made by subsidiaries in treaty jurisdictions to the Mauritius entity may benefit from reduced withholding tax rates under the applicable DTAA. All intercompany loans must be documented in properly drafted loan agreements reflecting arm's-length terms, which Aurevya's legal team prepares as part of the treasury structuring service.
Mauritius's banking sector offers a comprehensive range of trade finance products, including import and export letters of credit, documentary collections (documents against payment and documents against acceptance), bank guarantees and performance bonds, trade loans (pre- and post-shipment), forfaiting, and supply chain finance. The availability of specific products varies by institution, and Aurevya's banking facilitation team identifies the banks with the strongest trade finance capabilities for each client's specific trade corridors and commodity types.
Mauritius has a freely convertible currency and no exchange controls on international transactions for GBCs and ACs. A Mauritius entity can hold bank accounts in any major currency, most commonly USD, EUR, and GBP, but also in a range of other currencies depending on the institution. Mauritius's banking sector has strong correspondent banking relationships across Africa and Asia, facilitating remittances to and from a wide range of jurisdictions in local currencies. This makes Mauritius a particularly effective hub for groups managing multi-currency treasury operations across the African continent.

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