Services

We advise companies whose money and goods cross the Swiss–EU border: on financing and treasury, on trade finance and customs, and on the warehouses, routes and controls that keep both in order.

Freight train on an alpine viaduct

Corporate finance advisory

Advice on financing, acquisitions, disposals and capital structure for privately held and mid-market companies.

We prepare companies for decisions that change their balance sheet. That covers refinancing and new bank facilities, acquisitions and carve-outs, and the valuation and financial due diligence that come with them. We work from the numbers the company already reports, under IFRS or Swiss GAAP FER, and make them hold up to a lender or a buyer.

IFRS 18 applies to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 and changes how the income statement is presented. We help finance teams restate comparatives, define management performance measures and explain the changes to lenders before covenants are tested on the new basis.

Typical deliverables

  • Financing options paper and lender shortlist
  • Financial due diligence and quality-of-earnings review
  • Valuation report with stated assumptions
  • IFRS 18 transition plan and covenant impact note

Treasury, working capital and trade finance

Cash, currency and trade finance structures for companies that buy and sell across borders.

Companies trading between Switzerland and the eurozone carry currency exposure in almost every contract. We review cash pooling, intercompany funding, hedging policy and bank account structure, and we measure working capital line by line: receivables, payables and the inventory sitting in warehouses or in transit.

Geneva is one of the world's main centres for commodity trading and the trade finance that supports it. We advise traders and industrial buyers on letters of credit, documentary collections, borrowing-base facilities and receivables finance, and on the documents banks will ask for before they lend against goods.

Typical deliverables

  • Treasury policy and FX hedging framework
  • Working capital diagnostic with cash release plan
  • Trade finance facility review and term-sheet comments
  • Cash pooling and bank account rationalisation design

Supply-chain and logistics strategy

Network, warehousing and transport decisions tested against cost, service and risk.

We model distribution networks: where stock should sit, how many warehouses a company needs, and which flows should move by road, rail or inland waterway. Decisions are tested on landed cost, lead time and the working capital each option ties up, so that the logistics case and the finance case are the same case.

From Lyon we cover France and the routes into the rest of the EU. We write tenders for logistics service providers, review existing 3PL contracts and their service levels, and set out the inventory and transport data a finance team needs to see what the supply chain costs.

Typical deliverables

  • Distribution network model with scenario comparison
  • 3PL tender pack and contract review
  • Inventory policy by product family
  • Logistics cost-to-serve report

Customs and cross-border trade

Customs procedures, origin and Incoterms for goods moving between Switzerland, the EU and third countries.

Switzerland is outside the EU Customs Union, so every shipment across the border is an import and an export. We review tariff classification, preferential origin under the Swiss–EU free trade arrangements, customs valuation and the choice of Incoterms 2020 rule in sales and purchase contracts. In the EU we work under the Union Customs Code, Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, including customs warehousing, inward processing and Authorised Economic Operator status.

EU customs is changing. In March 2026 the Parliament and the Council reached agreement on a reform that creates an EU Customs Authority and an EU Customs Data Hub, phased in over the following years. We help importers prepare their data, their brokers and their internal controls for the new model.

Typical deliverables

  • Customs and origin health check
  • Incoterms 2020 review of key contracts
  • AEO application or renewal file
  • Special procedures assessment (warehousing, inward processing)

Risk and compliance

Sanctions screening, anti-money laundering controls and trade compliance for financial and trading firms.

Trading companies and the banks that finance them need to know who they deal with and what they ship. We design sanctions screening for counterparties, vessels and goods, review dual-use and export control exposure, and test anti-money laundering procedures against the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act and FINMA requirements for supervised entities.

In the EU, the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) in Frankfurt is due to begin direct supervision of selected financial institutions in 2028. We help EU-regulated clients and their Swiss counterparts read what the new single rulebook asks of them and close the gaps before supervisors look.

Typical deliverables

  • Sanctions and export control risk assessment
  • Screening rules and alert-handling procedure
  • AML/KYC procedure review and gap report
  • Board-level compliance reporting template

Sustainable finance and finance data

EU taxonomy, SFDR, CSRD and CBAM obligations turned into figures a finance team can produce and defend.

Sustainability rules now reach the general ledger. We map activities against the EU taxonomy, prepare CSRD reporting for companies inside its revised scope, and help asset managers read the Commission's November 2025 proposal to revise SFDR. Since 1 January 2026, importers of steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers and other CBAM goods above the annual threshold are in the definitive period, with certificates to be purchased from February 2027.

None of this works without clean data. We design the finance data model behind it: chart of accounts, product and customs master data, and the controls that link a customs declaration or an emissions figure to a reported number. Where an ERP such as SAP S/4HANA is being introduced, we write the finance and trade requirements.

Typical deliverables

  • EU taxonomy eligibility and alignment assessment
  • CBAM declarant readiness plan and cost estimate
  • CSRD scope and data-gap review
  • Finance and trade data model with control points

Contact

For new enquiries, write to contact@rhodaneadvisory.com with a short description of the question and the timetable. We reply within two working days.

contact@rhodaneadvisory.com