TXF spoke to Jonas Rey, founder of third-party risk management consultancy Athena Intelligence, on what could have been done differently to decrease the risk of high-profile fraud cases in the commodities space last year.
The volatility in LNG spot prices between mid-2020 and early 2021 has shifted the dynamics of how LNG is traded. And the recent rally in LNG prices has undermined buyers’ enthusiasm for relying solely on the spot market while reversing favourability back towards long-term LNG contracts.
Mark Norris, partner at Sullivan, reflects on the various issues that emerged in 2020 and how they will feed into 2021, for the final Sullivan breakfast seminar of the year.
Gunvor’s oversubscribed biodiesel borrowing base has revealed significant lender support for the backing of cleaner products in line with the energy transition. But, with the handful of biggest traders attracting plenty of debt, and SMEs struggling to secure such volumes of financing, the already large funding gap at the lower end of the commodity trade finance market is set to widen.
Russia’s syndicated loan market activity is set to boom at the beginning of 2021, according to sources, as corporates delay their Q4 2020 fundraising plans to avoid any lingering ‘Covid premiums’ in anticipation of more favourable pricing conditions early next year.
This year’s edition of TXF’s Global Commodity Trade Finance Industry Report has landed, offering a thorough and independent look into the impact of the past 12 months on a sector which has endured a period of unparalleled volatility.
Trade finance in 2020: Annus horribilis - lessons for the future or a bit of both?
TXF spoke with Robin Miles, partner at Bracewell, to outline the impact of depressed oil and gas prices on oil majors and traders. From consolidation to financially over leveraged corporates converting debt to equity with the help of outside investment, the new ebb and flow of the energy market is providing a plethora of opportunities.
At TXF MENA Virtual 2020, ECI outlines the current world economic outlook and presents the launch of its new Islamic trade solution.
With the complicated transition away from LIBOR looming at the end of 2021, Olam has secured Singapore’s first club deal pegged to the country’s new Singapore Overnight Rate Average (SORA) benchmark. But not every corporate borrower is as prepared as the Singaporean food and agri-business for the change away from LIBOR, a daily benchmark which has determined interest rates for $250 trillion of debt and derivatives for over 40 years.
Live Webinar | 23.09.2020 | 14:00 UK | Join us for a one-on-one interview with the STSA's Secretary General, Florence Schurch.
Alternative lenders cannot solely pick up the funding gap left by European commercial banks retreating from the commodity finance space in the Covid-19 epoch. But can bank-fund collaboration based on the different stages of the transportation of goods provide a viable deal template going forward?
Live Webinar | 23.09.2020 | 14:00 UK | Join us for a one-on-one interview with the STSA's Secretary General, Florence Schurch.
Webinar | 16.09.2020 | 14:00 UK | Amidst current concerns over the future of food security and supply chain resilience, global sugar trader Czarnikow recently announced that it has completed on the world’s first sustainable sugar supply chain partnership. TXF sits down with Czarnikow CEO, Robin Cave, to discuss the drivers behind the groundbreaking partnership and how it could provide a template towards a more sustainable commodity industry.
TXF is excited to announce the launch of TXF TV, an exciting new channel featuring weekly broadcasts of the latest trade, export and commodity finance content, directly to your device of choice. Just in case you missed the first episode, here is a summary.
TXF TV: 09/09/2020: 14:00 UK - TXF is excited to announce the launch of TXF TV, an exciting new channel featuring weekly broadcasts of the latest trade, export and commodity finance content, directly to your device of choice. Join us for the launch episode as we dissect the key findings from the latest TXF H1 Export Finance Data Report
With European banks retreating from the commodity finance space, amid a raft of corporate losses and fraud cases in the wake of the pandemic, the risk perception of the sector is ballooning while the pool of funds shrink. But, despite an inevitable uptick in the cost of capital for traders and the need for alternative funding structures, could second and third tier corporates benefit from a shake up?
Mercuria sealed tight pricing on its European RCF refinancing despite sounding out banks in the midst of the pandemic. The deal signed when other investment grade commodity-linked borrowers were hit with more hefty ‘Covid-19 premiums’.
While some European commodity-linked corporates are tapping into expensive, short-term debt to boost their liquidity amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many Russian traders and producers are confidently going ahead with general syndicated loans that were in the pipeline even before the crisis.
Arnaud Floris, head of West, Central and North Africa at Bpifrance has been busy since he started his new role two months ago at the French ECA in the midst of a global pandemic. Floris speaks to TXF to discuss Bpifrance's response to the crisis.
It’s time to celebrate commodity finance excellence, as last year’s most outstanding, unique and influential deals, which cover a range of sectors and regions, have been named by TXF.
TXF spoke with EASTvine Capital, a small alternative fund set up in Singapore in 2018 by three ex-bankers who saw an opportunity to fill the commodity trade finance funding gap in Asia, which currently stands at an estimated $600 billion.
A few months after the launch of Squire Patton Boggs’ shipping and commodities group, headed up by partners Jessica Kenworthy and Barry Simpson, TXF caught up with the pair in Singapore to talk about the opportunities and obstacles in establishing the law firm in new markets amid a turbulent time for the global commodities market.
A few months after the launch of Squire Patton Boggs’ shipping and commodities group, headed up by partners Jessica Kenworthy and Barry Stimpson, TXF caught up with the pair in Singapore to outline the opportunities and obstacles in establishing the law firm in new markets amid a turbulent time for the global commodities industry.
Winning the Russian Commodities Finance Deal of the Year Award is aluminium producer Rusal with its $1.085 billion pre-export financing. Rusal has changed the benchmark as this was the first ever sustainability-linked syndicated facility for a Russian corporate arranged by international and Russian banks in Russia.
Cocobod has won TXF’s African Commodities Finance Deal of the Year for securing the first ever syndicated sustainability-linked loan for an African borrower – a milestone trade receivables-backed transaction for the second largest producer of cocoa in the world.
Winning TXF’s Asian Commodities Finance Deal of the Year Award, the up to $750 million cash-for-metal deal, signed between Duferco and JSW Steel in 2019, is the largest trade finance facility ever arranged for an Indian steel company. The financing marks the first deal of this size to close in the steel industry since the financial crisis and looks set to serve as a financing template for future deals.
Winning TXF’s Commodities Acquisition Finance Deal of the Year, Var Energi signed a $6 billion reserve base lending facility (RBL) in 2019 to back a highly strategic purchase for its upstream business in Norway - in a deal which marked the largest RBL in the market last year.
Winning TXF’s Most Innovative Commodities Finance Deal of the Year Award, Trailstone’s €150 million 2019 borrowing base marked a flurry of firsts for the commodity trade finance sector. In fact, never has such a structure been used to back the purchase and sale of renewable energy generated by wind and solar farms across Europe.
Winning TXF’s Energy Commodities Finance Deal of the Year, Nayara Energy’s first pre-payment loan is set to serve as a viable financing template for commodity-linked corporates in the Indian energy sector.
Winning TXF’s Commodity Trading Company Finance Deal of the Year Award, Bunge’s debut sustainabilitylinked facility has provided a seedbed for the trader to replicate deals of this kind going forward in the agribusiness sector, despite the financing taking years of discussions with lenders on how to integrate its financial strategy with its sustainability strategy.
Winning TXF’s Metals/Minerals Commodities Finance Deal of the Year Award, Metalloinvest signed a landmark €200 million pre-export finance (PXF) facility in 2019, with an attractive fixed interest rate for the entire maturity of the six-and-a-half-year loan – a record length PXF tenor for the Russian metals and mining company.
Taking home TXF’s Overall Commodities Finance Deal of the Year Award 2019, China’s Cofco signed the largest loan for a trading company yet which is linked to sustainability elements.
During a volatile time for global trade and the commodities market amid the coronavirus pandemic, TXF spoke to Jean Woo, partner at Ashurst in Singapore, to discuss how the law firm is staying abreast of the legal requirements facing its corporate clients as many of them look to restructure their debt.
Nornickel has sealed a $4.15 billion refinancing at time when Russian corporate borrowers and international lenders have found their cost of debt aspirations harmonising, according to sources, with the producer’s upsized and tightened deal a testament to this market sentiment.
The commodity trade finance funding mix is evolving. Growing regulation, the rise of alternative funds and all things ESG have contributed to the decline in deal volume in 2019. But are traders being transparent enough about their deals? And will bank-fund hybrid loans form a happy marriage?
Ireland-based Kenmare Resources returned to the debt markets in December to refinance the remaining debt backing its Moma titanium mine in Mozambique. But this time round, the deal has a new lender line-up, vanilla structure, looser covenants and cheaper pricing, which all reflect the strength of the mine’s cash flows and its expansion capacity.
At TXF's PRI conference last month, Pierre Vergnes, head of institutional financing at Fonroche Lighting, explains why the off-grid solar manufacturer taps ECA support over the private market when looking for insurance in challenging high-risk countries.
Eight months into her new role as CFO at Gunvor, TXF spoke with Muriel Schwab, the first ever woman to fill these shoes at the energy trader, to discuss where the company’s funding strategies will take its trading ventures in 2020.
On the sidelines of TXF’s PRI conference in December, Saqib Mustafa, executive director of structured trade and receivable finance at Santander, spoke to TXF to discuss the benefits of shopping around for private insurance brokers, and whether blockchain really is the future for hard trade deals?
Amid the coffee and croissants at Sullivan's latest trade finance breakfast seminar, partner Geoffrey Wynne discusses where trade fintech currently sits and where it is going.
Mercuria’s annual $1.2 billion Asian RCF closed last month. While the downsized deal and significant margin savings suggest the trader has a strong financial position, a continued drop in its oil trading business could spell a different fundraising story for 2020.
With banks having to implement the finalised version of Basel III (commonly called Basel IV) by 1 January 2022, regulatory requirements are becoming ever complex. TXF spoke to Fasil Nasim, co-founder of alternative fund Audentia Global, to discuss the implications of changing regulations on the commodity trade finance sector.
Commodity traders have always been customers to portfolio players in the LNG space. However, as traders up the signing of long-term offtake contracts, portfolio players are beginning to sell a large chunk of their LNG on the spot market as both parties compete for volume.
At the sidelines of TXF Geneva, TXF sat down with Amitji Odedra from Qbera Capital to discuss corporate appetite for diversification in funding, how the trade finance gap is creating opportunities for alternative funds and dabbling in the secondary trading market.
This year's edition of TXF’s Commodity Finance Market Report comprises the insights of 173 traders, bankers, alternative financiers, lawyers, brokers, borrowers and insurers through a two-part survey and in-depth interviews. It is our most representative, expansive and detailed yet.
Given its status as the world's second largest aluminium producer, Rusal's sustainability-linked loan debut is good news for the growing ESG movement. But like other deals in the commodity sector that have closed before it, the financial structure in Rusal's deal lacks the teeth to leave no doubt that it is not tinged with a bit of greenwash.
De-dollarisation in Russia is on the rise. And with already limited access to the international syndicated loan markets in the face of US sanctions, euro-denominated funding is providing a lower cost of debt for commodity-linked Russian borrowers.
Kernel signed a tightly priced $390 million PXF last month – a rare example of a Ukrainian corporate taking the structured trade finance route in 2019. And despite the political turmoil developing in Ukraine, the agri trader is out to the international bond/unsecured debt markets for future fundraising plans.
Before his retirement at the end of last month, after nearly 40 years in the commodity finance sector, TXF spoke with Deutsche Bank’s global head of structured commodity trade finance John MacNamara one last time.
TXF PRI: Trade, Commodity & Export Finance is taking place this February. Delve into the local market and make high-level contacts that might just lead to your next deal...
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.
Uniting the key players and deal makers across the Americas. This is your chance to stay connected and ahead of the curve!
Join us while we are looking into the commodity finance sector for the Asia Pacific region. Connect with key players and hear about current and future deals.
The destination for African export & project finance. Come together with deal makers across the region for virtual networking opportunities second to none .
TXF is introducing the 'Financing the Energy Transition' event, focusing on the latest updates and future plan of the energy transition.
Proud to be bringing back TXF Global Commodity Finance, a must-attend event for the commodity finance community.
TXF invites you to join a dynamic group of export finance professionals to plot your ideas on where we're heading and how to get there
Fasten your seatbelt for the second leg of the ultimate export finance world tour, with stop-offs at Asia, Mena, Europe, Africa, and the Americas
This year's global trade virtual event will look into the impact of covid-19 to the market and explore new opportunities
Calling all changemakers in export finance! Join us to plot your ideas about diversity, sustainability and inclusion in the industry. If you are here to make a difference you are in the right place!
Your largest export, agency & project finance event returns to Madrid for 2021 after a 2020 virtual extravaganza! Industry renowned as the go-to for global export finance. Let the deal-making begin!
We are delighted to bring back this senior-level virtual event dedicated to the MENA region! Examine the regions' key trends and future opportunities whilst networking in a safe space.
A key event in the export, agency & project finance event calendar for senior and influential professionals working across the Asia-Pacific region. Networking and deal opportunities abound!