TXF Global 2018: Editor's choice

With TXF Global 2018: Export & Agency Finance just around the corner, we cast our eyes at the agenda for some of our favourite sessions taking place next week. If you haven’t got your ticket yet there are 15 left, please click here to find out more.

First up a firm favourite here at TXF Towers, the TXF ECA Backed Renewables Deal of the Year Markbygden case study:

CASE STUDY: MARKBYGDEN- EUROPE’S
LARGEST ONSHORE WIND-FARM
Establishing a new benchmark of how to successfully
structure and finance European renewables projects in a
non-FiT landscape:
• Negotiating and developing a corporate PPA - a vision of
the future for the European renewables market
• The importance and challenges of developing revenue and
finance structures in parallel
• The challenges and inter-plays in bringing together ECA,
DFI and commercial debt for a European project
• How replicable is this deal in other markets, and what can
we learn from this deal that we can take elsewhere?
Nils Driemeyer, Head of Origination, HSH Nordbank
Thomas Thomsen, European Sales Leader, GE Renewables
Caine Bouwmeester, SVP, Green Investment Group
Eric Bjonerud, VP, Green Investment Group
Ulrich Schulte-Lünzum, Head of Project Finance, Euler Hermes
Tor-Ove Horstad, SVP, Head of Energy Commercial, Norsk Hydro
Moderator: Shyam Sankar, Global Capital Advisory, GE
Capital Energy Financial Services

As we love an active borrower region, and by no means in second place, the MENA panel:

LEADING THE CHARGE: PROSPECTS FROM MENA
According to TXF Data, the Middle East has been the
largest ECA market for the last two years running. We
examine if this trend will continue:
• With the price of oil rising, will the need for ECA backed
investment be as pertinent as other forms of balance sheet lending?
Conversely has the success of various energy and infrastructure
projects led to a new paradigm for SOEs and private borrowers?
• What’s the latest on Saudi privatisations and the outlook
for international investors?
• Will the UAE continue to offer exciting opportunities in
ECA backed real estate and construction projects not
often seen from other regions?
• 2017 was a quiet year for Egypt - will 2018 see the highs
of 2015/16, or at least increased volumes?
• Project finance once dominated ECA deals flows, but
was relatively quiet the last 2 years. Will the advent of
Duqm and Bapco change this?
Qaisar M Zaman, General Manager - Investments,
Nogaholding
Rani Selwanes, Managing Director & Head of Investment
Banking, NBK Capital
Shukri Almahrous, Former Deputy CEO, Planning & Finance,
Kuwait National Petroleum Company
Heiko Lentge, Director, ECA Advisory and Modelling, PwC
Moderator: Richard Hodder, MD, Global Head of Export &
Specialised Finance, HSBC

And of course the keynote ECA panel:

STIMULATING MANUFACTURING GROWTH: THE ECA PERSPECTIVE
Learn how ministerial departments, regulating authorities and ECA leaders in key manufacturing nations plan to use their export credit systems to drive growth in their capital industries:
• Accepting globalisation: With increased multinationalism of companies how flexible will OECD ECAs become on national content? Where will they draw the line
between job creation and competing with more flexible ECAs and their non OECD counterparts?
• Given the importance of project sponsors and borrowers give to the fnancial package, how can ECAs ensure that they are competitive enough for their
exporters not to lose out to inferior products?
• Documentation is often cited as over extensive, but flexibility a deciding matter for the end client, how do you decide between a standardized easy to replicate
approach and a complex bespoke approach?
• Changing times: How will digitisation and the necessity integration of multiple platforms from each actor change the business procedures? Will the millennial
shift towards the sharing economy reshape business models? How do we respond to the drive for a cleaner world and support our industries?
Martin Tlapa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations, Czech Republic
Geetha Muralidhar, Chairman and Managing Director, ECGC Limited
Alessandro Decio, Chief Executive Ofcer, SACE
Catrin Fransson, CEO, Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK)
Louis Taylor, Chief Executive, UK Export Finance
Beatriz Reguero Naredo, COO, State Account Business, CESCE Credit Insurance
Moderator: Jonathan Joseph-Horne, Managing Director, Structured Export Finance, SMBC