JB's weekly round-up - 14 October 2013
Key personnel from the export credit agency (ECA) and private insurance community were in attendance at the Berne Union AGM held in Vienna last week. TXF was kindly invited to film exclusive interviews with key individuals at the event.
Welcome to the weekly round-up of the TXF news service.
Video interviews from the Berne Union AGM, Vienna
Key personnel from the export credit agency (ECA) and private insurance community were in attendance at the Berne Union AGM held in Vienna last week. TXF was kindly invited to film exclusive interviews with key individuals at the event. Jetting over with our film crew from London on Wednesday, TXF interviewed out-going president Johan Schrijver and newly elected BU president Daniel Riordan, as well as Rudolf Scholten, co-chairman at OeKB - the host country ECA.
For a report on the appointments of Zurich’s Daniel Riordan as President, and PwC’s Andreas Klasens as Vice President, click here.
LME Week: New participants in Q4?
Last week London played host once again to LME Week (London Metal Exchange) when producers, traders and bankers descend on the city for a jamboree of meetings, presentations, lunches, functions, dinners and plenty of drinks. It is the largest gathering of the metals industry in the world and TXF was pleased to catch up with many traders and bankers based overseas. So what was the overall feeling? It has largely been a lack-lustre year so far for the metals financiers, although several report some interesting deals to come in the final quarter of the year. However, with a general reluctance by some banks to carry deals on their own books, expect some interesting participants. Meanwhile, final decisions on the LME warehousing system will not be known till late in October.
All aboard Chile’s CSAV
Container shipping is a prime logistic of global trade, and export credit is a prime and much-needed tool for the shipping sector. So, all aboard Chile’s CSAV shipping company, with its successful $347.5 million transaction to purchase seven new container vessels. On this deal, we see the full weight of Korean institutional support, with Korea Exim providing a direct loan, K-sure export credit guarantees and Korea Development Bank taking part in the commercial bank tranche – alongside Citi, Santander and Deutsche Bank.
Shhhh! Boost for US energy – but don’t tell anyone!
Opportunities abound in energy deals in North America, and last week the market witnessed strong support for US energy with the $4 billion revolving credit facility for oil and gas exploration company Noble Energy. This is certainly one of, if not the, largest deals of its kind in North America so far this year. MLAs are BAML, BTMU, Citi, DNB Bank, JP Morgan and Mizuho. And with a tenor of five-years the transaction gives the company plenty of flexibility. A deal to shout about, perhaps? Not so, Noble Energy, who declined to make any comment to TXF about the deal. Oh well, one can only try!
RMB push continues
The internationalisation of the renminbi (RMB) continues at quite a pace, with several international banks cementing themselves as major players in this arena. And so we see Standard Chartered Bank punch the market by arranging a RMB2.5 billion ($408.4 million) cross-border lending deal for Nokia Siemens Networks in China (NSN China) last week. Under the deal, NSN China will be able to include the RMB into its portfolio of working capital currencies to better manage its global liquidity positions and streamline its treasury operations.
And finally…….
ABN AMRO continues to build its commodity financing capabilities with the establishment of its commodity structured inventory products (SIP) offering out of its Singapore offices. The new desk will be run by Chuey Peng Ng and Julien Moreau-Pernet.
All the best,
Jonathan Bell
Editor-in-Chief
