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Deal Analysis - Erdenet, Mongolia

23 June 2009

The first big ‘new money’metals deal for an emerging market producer in 2009 has been arranged by Rabobank. Jonathan Bell examines the background and detail of a classic deal that breaks the deadlock of a metals commodity banking market wrapped up in restructurings.

Read more: [Rabobank] [Ocean Partners] [Banco Espirito Santo] [Denton Wilde Sapte] [Mongolia copper] [copper concentrate] [copper commodity finance] [Erdenet] [Mongolia]

Commodity banking and new metals financings in particular, may have been severely knocked off-kilter by the global economic recession, but the recent deal for Mongolia’s Erdenet Mining Corporation (Erdenet), led principally by trader/offtaker Ocean Partners UK (OP) and Rabobank International together with Banco Espirito Santo (BES), shows that the sector has tremendous resilience with experienced arrangers ready and able to support consistent producers with secure export contracts.

The deal in question is a one-year, $55 million trader-led pre-payment financing for Mongolia’s Erdenet copper mine, located some 400 kilometers north-west of the capital Ulaanbaatar. The deal is a club arrangement, with Rabobank acting as coordinating arranger and providing $42 million of the funding. Banco Espirito Santo (BES) is providing the remaining $13 million. OP is the borrower of record, which onlends to Erdenet. As such, there is a pass-through risk, with performance risk being taken on Erdenet to produce...


Poll

Will Russia’s recent ban on grain exports result in a significant rise in private risk insurance claims from grain traders unable to fulfil their contracts?

Yes – there will be more claims. The government’s actions allow traders, with PRI cover, to make claims through contract frustration.
8%
No - the majority of Russia’s wheat production, some 70%-80%, is used for domestic consumption so the contracts represent only a small portion of the total wheat market, limiting the amount of potential claims.
23%
No - traders had a week’s notice before the ban allowing them to secure alternative supplies to fulfil contracts stated as optional origin.
23%
Maybe - but claims are likely to be limited to traders dealing in soft wheat whose contracts demand they source wheat only from Russia.
46%