The run up to the Christmas and New Year holiday period is always a hectic time. This year was no exception, as deals closed and a lot of end-of-year balance sheet activity took place.
The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has signed a $250 million syndicated term loan facility marking its debut in the international syndicated loan market. The facility, which was oversubscribed, has a tenor of two years and will be used to enhance the corporation’s ability to support investment and trade finance across the continent.
ING Corporate Bank has named Anthony van Vliet as the new global head trade & commodity finance (T&CF). He takes over from Paul van Heerde who has been in charge since 1 April 2006. Van Heerde retires at the end of 2014, after a successful career of 28 years at ING
The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has appointed Bernard Shum as the head of corporate & institutional banking in Hong Kong to lead the expansion of NBAD’s business and partnership in Asia.
Deutsche Bank today has appointed Maria Cristina (Kika) Ricciardi as head of global transaction banking (GTB) Latin America and head of trade finance and cash management corporates for Latin America (LatAm).
Saudi Arabian-based water and power project developer, ACWA Power, has secured a SR1.77 billion Islamic loan from four local banks. The funds will be used to help finance investments including acquisitions and act as a bridge to a sukuk issue in 2014.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im) has announced a new slate of members for its advisory committee as of today. Now in its 31st year, the Congressionally-established advisory committee advises US Ex-Im on its policies and programmes, in particular on the extent to which the bank provides competitive financing to support American jobs through exports.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im) has just released its figures for its financial year 2013, which reveal the agency has supported a record number of transactions with small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
China Airlines, Taiwan’s largest international carrier, has implemented CashPro Accelerate, a cash-management and treasury solution provided by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) global transaction services (GTS).
The IFC and Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) have signed a unique risk sharing facility, which will increase the amount of renminbi (RMB) denominated trade finance available to Chinese banks, as well as corporates and businesses in China and across Asia and other emerging markets involved in imports and exports to China.
The IFC and Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) have signed a unique risk sharing facility, which will increase the amount of renminbi (RMB) denominated trade finance available to Chinese banks, as well as corporates and businesses in China and across Asia and other emerging markets involved in imports and exports to China.
Over the past couple of months, TXF has been beavering away along with our friends at Silversun Media to create a library of free, high quality video content for our website.
Susanne Kavelaar is due to become the chief representative in Europe for IFC's global trade and supply chain finance programme
Joint Citi / Santander $1 billion trade securitisation is expected to price at one month Libor plus H60's bp
Development financial institution Proparco has signed a $40 million loan agreement with Chase Bank (Kenya). The loan, which has a seven-year tenor, will be used for onlending to clients of the bank, and in particular to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in trade.
Bank balance sheets are no longer big enough. Trade’s new natural home should be with institutional investors. Risk is not priced correctly. Jonathan Bell interviews John Ahearn
International law firm Ince & Co has appointed Stuart Shepherd as its new global head of trade. He succeeds Steven Fox who will be retiring from the firm in April 2014. Shepherd is a London-based commodities, shipping and commercial disputes specialist. He has over 30 years of experience with Ince & Co and is a key member of the firm's trade group.
tagmydeals is a free of charge, user-generated database covering deals in trade, export and project finance. Following months of consultation with many of you (something we really appreciate), we have built something that the industry will hopefully find new and genuinely useful.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has appointed Alexander Malaket, president of OPUS Advisory Services International, to its 12-member executive committee.
In a new survey on risk published by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) it reveals that foreign investors are increasingly cautious about investing in developing countries in the face of continued global economic and political turbulence.
Schlumberger the world’s largest oilfield services company, has selected Standard Chartered (StanChart) to provide a comprehensive cash management and trade guarantee solution for its Asian businesses.
According to the Society for Worldwide International Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), China’s renminbi (RMB) overtook the euro as the world’s second most-used trade finance currency in October. The data comes through SWIFT’s RMB Tracker* and applies to letters of credit (LCs) and collections.
Another chance to see Geoff Wynne's lecture on trends in trade finance
The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) has agreed to provide a ship bond guarantee to help ship financing to a local shipping company - Sinokor Petrochemical. This is the first instance where the Korean export credit agency (ECA) has applied its ship bond guarantee scheme to support vessel purchases by a domestic shipping company,
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im) has appointed Charles J ‘CJ’ Hall as executive vice president and chief risk officer. He has 35 years of experience in international economics, finance and business.
French-headquartered development finance institution Proparco has signed a $50 million loan with the pan-Aafrican banking group Ecobank. The loan was signed with Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the holding company of Ecobank Group. It has a 10-year tenor. Pricing details were not disclosed.
French bank Natixis is expanding its presence in Asia-Pacific with two new hires for its regional banking platform within trade and treasury. Yuri Lin has been appointed managing director, head of sales, fixed income, commodities and treasury, Asia-Pacific. And Daniel Yap has been appointed regional head of financial institutions and public sector coverage, Asia Pacific.
Standard Chartered Bank (StandChart) and Agricultural Bank of China Limited (AgBC) have signed an agreement to collaborate to provide renminbi (RMB) clearing services in the UK.
Last week, TXF held its first Short-Term Trade & Supply Chain Finance event in Munich – and a humdinger of an event it was too. I learned masses of stuff - and I’m sure the same can be said for many others attending.
View pictures from the recent Short-term Trade and Supply Chain Finance in 2013 conference in Munich
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has launched new transaction service capabilities for clients doing business in Brazil. The products are designed to help companies better handle excess cash flows.
Euler Hermes and Kexim are two very different ECAs. Some interesting comparisons can be made by looking at five years of data from 2009 till the end of June 2013.
In a recent poll taken at the TXF Short-Term Trade and Supply Chain Finance conference in Munich, participants were most excited by automation in the sector, saw BPO as the biggest innovation, and regulation as the key challenge.
Italian export credit agency (ECA) and insurance and financial group Sace, has opened a representative office in Mexico City. The ECA says that the move comes about due to dynamic trade with multinationals operating in the country and the huge business potential for small business enterprises (SMEs
Bolero International and China Systems, a leading trade services solutions vendor, have established a strategic partnership designed to assist clients involved in trade by providing increased flexibility and functionalities. The agreement finalises the full integration between Bolero Exchange and Eximbills Enterprise, China Systems’ flagship trade finance back office solution.
Apologies for the late mailing of the Weekly News – TXF was somewhat tied up with its Short-Term Trade & Supply Trade Conference in Munich for the first part of this week, which I will relay detail to you in next week’s news.
HSBC has made a series of senior appointments in its Asia-Pacific commercial banking team. Sanjay Prakash has been appointed head of commercial banking, international countries Asia-Pacific. Prakash will take charge of the commercial banking performance of Brunei, Macau, Maldives, Mauritius, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Watson, Farley & Williams (WFW) has appointed Joe Levin as partner in its London office. Levin previously held the position of director of the energy and infrastructure finance team at Wragge & Co, and joined WFW in early November 2013.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI) today signed a landmark agreement to establish a €1 billion ($1.36 billion) Russian-Italian investment platform
The Italian export credit agency Sace and Russia’s Vnesheconombank (VEB) have signed a cooperation agreement to facilitate economic relations between Italy and the Russian Federation.
Eastern European growth has laboured as a result of the eurozone crisis. Yet overall economic growth continues to surpass that of Western Europe, says Per Fischer, head of financial institutions CEE, Russia, CI, Baltics and Turkey at Commerzbank. And with trade between Eastern and Western Europe remaining strong, these established trading relationships could be reinforced if potential developments in the east of the continent come to fruition
Citi and Santander have partnered to issue Trade MAPS 1 - an asset-backed securitisation (ABS) debt issuance backed by trade finance assets. The two institutions will be joint book runners on the $1 billion ABS, alongside Morgan Stanley, who are also sole structuring agent.
Stamford, US-headquartered Finacity Corporation has successfully merged of two existing trade receivables securitisations for Mexican glass producer Vitro SAB de CV (Vitro). The combined financing amounts to MXN1.2 billion ($91.5 million).
Law firm Hogan Lovells is expanding its scope and capabilities in Africa by merging with the South African law firm Routledge Modise. The combination will take effect from 1 December 2013, with Routledge Modise expected to rebrand and relaunch as Hogan Lovells in early 2014.
Dutch institutional investors Zwitserleven, the Spoorweg Pensioenfonds and the Pensioenfonds Openbaar Vervoer have made a first deposit in the SNS FMO SME Finance Fund – a fund set up to assist small and medium-sized companies(SMEs) in developing countries. The fund has received €100 million ($135.4 million) in investments for a first close. It is expected that commitments will increase substantially in 2014.
The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has appointed Aleem Khan as head of its newly established structured financing business. Before joining NBAD, Khan served as regional head of structured trade finance and financing solutions for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the Americas at Standard Chartered Bank.
Read the results from our ECA finance industry poll, taken at the TXF conference in Paris
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has announced a record year for fiscal year 2013. Highlights of the year’s operations include: • OPIC's lending programme committed an unprecedented $3.75 billion in support of US businesses investing in
Law firm Sullivan & Worcester, recently established in London, is broadening its scope with the appointment of yet another partner (also see TXF News 7 November 2013). This latest move sees the appointment of Mark Norris as a partner to the London office, where he will focus on structured export credit finance, structured trade and commodity finance in emerging markets, and acquisition finance.
Finacity Corporation (Finacity) has facilitated the successful launch of a new $350 million global freight receivables securitisation for German-headquartered Hapag-Lloyd Group (Hapag-Lloyd), a leading global shipping company. The programme replaces the company’s existing North American facility.
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The ultimate guide to the German Export Finance bringing together senior attendees from banks and exporters gather every year to make new connections and plan ahead...
Roll up, roll up for the latest updates on Spanish Export Finance. This annual event will cover all current and future deals and explore new opportunities for the market.
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We're reuniting the French Export Finance industry to discuss trends in the market and make new valuable connections. Join us to get ahead of next year's deals.
Our first UK Export Finance event is taking place this December. Delve into the local market and make high-level contacts that might just lead to your next deal...
TXF is teaming up with Nigeria Investment Gateway to run this year's Nigerian Trade and Investment Summit. This will be a virtual event focusing on existing and new investment projects in Nigeria.
This is a fully virtual event, which allows uncapped, senior-level participation from all corners of the globe.
This virtual event will address those challenges head-on. We want to create an atmosphere that is inspiring and ideas led, that demonstrates the art of the possible for the export finance community.