Credit and counterparty risk
Credit or counterparty risk is defined as the possibility of a customer, subcontractor or a financial counterparty not fulfilling its commitments towards Valmet. Subsidiaries are primarily responsible for credit risks pertaining to sales and procurement activities. The subsidiaries assess the credit standing of their customers, by taking into account their financial position, past experience and other relevant factors. Advance payments, letters of credit and third-party guarantees are actively used to mitigate credit risks. Treasury provides centralized services related to trade, project and customer financing and seeks to ensure that the principles of Valmet’s treasury policy are adhered to with respect to terms of payment and required collateral. Valmet has no significant concentrations of credit risks due to the large number and geographic dispersion of companies that comprise the Group’s customer base.
The maximum credit risk equals the carrying value of trade and other receivables, together with contract assets related to contracts for which revenue is recognized over time. The credit risk quality is evaluated both on the basis of aging of the trade receivables and also on the basis of customer specific analysis. The aging structure of trade receivables is presented in Note 8 in the Financial Statements 2022. Management considers investments at fair value through other comprehensive income to have low credit risk as they have a low risk of default and the issuer has a strong capacity to meet its contractual cash flow obligations in the near term.
Counterparty risk arises also from financial transactions agreed upon with banks, financial institutions and corporations. The risk is managed by careful selection of banks and other counterparties and by applying counterparty specific limits and netting agreements such as ISDA (Master agreement of International Swaps and Derivatives Association), see Note 9 in the Financial Statements 2022. All financial institutions Valmet associates with have investment grade status. When measuring the financial credit risk exposure, all open exposures such as cash at bank accounts, investments, deposits and other financial transactions, for example derivative contracts, are included. The compliance with financial counterparty limits is regularly monitored by the management.
