JB's weekly round-up - 11 November 2013

Welcome to the weekly round-up of the TXF news service
 

One day, I’m going to live in Paris  - I promise…
And so that day actually comes around this week, as the TXF office jumps over the English Channel and descends on Paris for our ECA Finance in 2013 Conference on 12-13 November at the Les Salons de l’Hotel des Arts & Métiers. We kick off with a walking tour of the district at 19:00 on Monday 11 November. We've now sold out but we will have some videos from the event available online next week.
 
Roll up, roll up, just published
Published last week to coincide with the Paris event, TXF has produced a 64-page Special Report on Export & Agency Finance in 2013. The report is available on our website for free and printed copies will be distributed at the event. It contains unique one-to one interviews with global heads of export and agency finance or structured export finance - some 10 interviews of remarkable frankness. By the way, we didn’t just bang out questionnaires asking folk to fill them in – these interviews were undertaken on a one-to one basis. 
Click here to download your free copy
 
Bonus for Sevan Drilling with record financing 
In a deal arranged by ING, Norwegian deepwater oil and gas explorer Sevan Drilling has drawn down $1.4 billion of a $1.75 billion financing arranged by global coordinator ING Bank. The financing funds the delivery of the company’s third rig Sevan Louisiana – being built by China’s Cosco Shipyard. In a bonus for the company, the syndication was oversubscribed some 50% - which allowed the company to use the bank debt funds rather than opt for an earlier less favourable bond issue. The overall facility was split in two tranches, with one backed by Norway’s export credit agency GIEK. And, as part of that the deal, ING booked the GIEK tranche through its Frankfurt export finance HQ. Full details of the banks involved can be found in the deal write-up.
 
Wind blown cash management
In an interesting structure which can be found within our trade and supply chain finance news of last week, Standard Chartered was appointed as the sole account bank for CLP Wind Farm’s (India) (CLPWF) pooled projects. Under this arrangement, the bank will effectively pool the cash flows from CLPWF’s current and future wind farm projects and offer various cash management services. Although the wind projects are with different lenders the pooling of cashflow gives effective cash flow management though one bank;  efficient monitoring of financial covenants under the pooling structure; potential for a higher credit rating for favourable funding opportunities, and real-time visibility of the various accounts. Smart stuff.
 
Sullivan & Worcester in the news again!
Yes indeed, US-headquartered law firm Sullivan & Worcester was back in the news again last week with the announcement that Simon Cook had joined the London-based trade and commodity team there. Cook, is yet another lawyer recruited from Dentons in London. It was only three weeks ago, when reporting on Geoff Wynne’s first day in the Sullivan & Worcester, that I asked him whether Simon Cook would also be joining – knowing Simon to be on gardening leave at the time. Sir Geoff politely replied: “You’d better wait and see.” So, now we know. What we don’t know is when the party is?
 
And finally...
While the US government puts noses out of joint at US coal equipment exporting companies with their proposal to stop backing such exports, coal production remains a mega industry in many countries. South Africa, is of course, one prime example where the coal sector provides vital employment for tens of thousands of workers. And the commodity highlight deal of last week was a $21.4 million working capital facility for Coal of Africa arranged by Investec. The bank takes share options as part of the transaction.
 
Have a good week.

Jonathan Bell
Editor-in-Chief