JB's weekly round-up - 18 February 2014

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

That was the week that was…

Take the ICC export finance banking survey…
The ICC, in conjunction with TXF, is currently conducting its first ever survey on export finance. The findings will form part of the prestigious ICC Global Trends Survey on Trade Finance, produced later this year.

The market intelligence will allow the ICC to provide reputable and reliable data and analysis to the industry, which will be of significant benefit to banks, financial institutions, corporations and their clients. Please take the survey to register your input and help build a bigger, more accurate picture. Results are completely anonymous and the survey only takes around 10 minutes.

Participants will receive access to the full results as soon as they are available.
 
Asia-Pacific proves a hotbed of personnel activity
Last week saw a good few market moves in the Asia-Pacific arena. At Deutsche Bank, Vikas Arora was appointed as head of trade finance and cash management for corporates in ASEAN(TXF 10 February 2014). The role is a new development within the bank, and indicative of the evolving services required for clients in South-East Asia.
 
Over at Westpac in Hong Kong and in Singapore it has been a real musical chairs scene. The bank has hired Alex Tam as head of corporate and institutional banking for Hong Kong (TXF 12 February 2014). In addition, Steven Yu joins the bank in Hong Kong as head of trade sales for North Asia. And over at Westpac in Singapore, Colin Siney has joined the bank as head of credit, commodities Asia. He comes from Standard Bank. These moves are part of a bigger build-up in the region by the bank – see the full story for more details.
 
Elsewhere, over at the ICC in Paris, Alexander Malaket has been appointed to the ICC’s 12-member executive committee (TXF 12 February 2014). He will advise the ICC Banking Commission on its trade register project and assist in the three year strategic plan.
 
Trafi opts for Montevideo as LatAm hub
Sticking with market movements, but firmly in the commodity sphere, commodity trader Trafigura has announced that it is to invest $20 million in new offices in Montevideo, Uruguay as the site for its Latin American hub (TXF 10 February 2014). By the end of 2015, some 300 personnel will be based there. The company says that much of the workforce will be recruited locally, and put through the company’s training programmes. In addition, heads of trading desks for the region and their teams will operate from Montevideo.
 
The largest European RBL yet!
So, last week we also saw the signing of the largest European reserve-based lending facility yet – by Swedish-headquartered upstream oil firm Lundin Petroleum (TXF 14 February 2014). The transaction, amounting to $4 billion, refinances the company’s $2.5 billion facility signed back in June 2012.
 
Bookrunning mandated lead arrangers on the facility were DNB Bank, Deutsche Bank and ING Bank. Overall, the company says that 25 banks took part in the facility - and we list all of these in the news item.
 
Agrowind blows in for financial close
On the project front, the big deal to hit the market was the Agrowind Windpark Noordoostpolder where Rabobank has combined with KfW IPEX-Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to provide $480 million in loans for Agrowind (TXF 14 February 2014). The project will use 26 Enercon 7.5 MW turbines.
 
For such a project in the Netherlands it is natural for a Dutch bank to play a major role, and this case with Agrowind being an initiative of agricultural entrepreneurs it is fitting that Rabobank is at the forefront with KfW and EIB.
 
And finally……
Apologies for the brevity of this weekly report, I'm off to Heathrow Airport for my flight to Lisbon. I hope to be able to report something from the IFC’s Global Partners Annual Meeting (Chatham House rules permitting) – where it looks like there are some 270+ delegates.
 
That’s all folks.
 
Cheers
JB