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December
Jonathan Bell talks with Rabobank International’s Karel Valken about the bank’s recent developments within trade and commodity finance.
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Commodity trade banks have had to face a range of difficult issues and circumstances through the course of the global economic crisis. Now though, with some lessons learned and certain sectors growing stronger, the traditional players are eyeing the changed scene and new opportunities. Michele Martensen assesses the market.
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Some of commodity finance’s biggest players sum up their outlook for the commodity/natural resource financing space for 2010 and beyond.
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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has arranged a loan to Kazexportastyk, a large producer and trader of grain and oil crops in northern Kazakhstan.
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Brazilian pulp producer Fibria has seen its long-term pre-export financing close oversubscribed.
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November
Aon Trade Credit has named a new head for its specialist team assigned to the pulp and paper industry.
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EBRD and Rabobank have set up a private equity fund for mid-cap food and agribusinesses in central and south-eastern Europe.
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Greater concentration on African business sees Standard Chartered appoint Zhann Meyer as regional head of commodity traders and agribusiness.
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Bolero and Viveo have signed a cooperation agreement to provide the commodity trade finance community with improved trade and trade finance applications.
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October
For the fifth year running, banks have successfully signed a refinancing for Swiss commodities trader Glencore.
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The World Cocoa Foundation has launched a programme to improve the lives of cocoa farmers with backing from international business and government.
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Multigrain unusually included a mortgage facility on its latest pre-export financing but, as the firm’s treasurer tells Trade Finance, the company now looks set to have a bumper year.
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Nedbank Capital has signed a Mozambican pre-export financing for UK cotton trader Plexus Cotton Limited.
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WestLB Commodity Finance has led a strong new pre-export financing package for the pulp marketing company AP Macao.
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Citi and Russian Agricultural Bank have signed an agreement to better facilitate export-import financing.
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September
Higher commodity prices, big deals and oversubscriptions – are banks back in a big way for sub-Saharan Africa? Dickon Harris examines the latest round of structured commodity deals that have hit the market.
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One year on from what he termed the Brazilian sub-prime, Eduardo de Paula Ribeiro Filho explains the latest developments in Brazil’s sugar market.
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Credit Suisse has signed a pre-export financing for Brazilian meat producer Marfrig Alimentos (Marfrig).
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DEG and FMO are supporting the Latin American Agribusiness Development Corporation with a long-term loan.
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Banks absent as the EBRD provides a credit line to Louis Dreyfus Commodities’ subsidiaries in Ukraine and Russia to fund grain exports.
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Hong Kong-based commodity trader Noble Group has mandated banks to increase and extend existing loan facilities.
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August
Santander has hired an ex-Natixis banker to head up its softs commodities business for Latin America and Asia.
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Injazat Capital will advise White Nile Sugar Company as it builds Africa’s largest sugar refinery.
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Swiss Re and the Beijing Municipal Government have entered into a reinsurance scheme to cover agricultural catastrophes.
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July
Cuba will receive a loan from Russia for the purchase of construction and agricultural machinery.
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Syndication for Ghana Cocobod pre-export financing attracts record levels of commitments forcing bookrunners to scale back the loan.
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Nedbank has received credit approval for a pre-export financing (PXF) in Eastern Africa for a cotton producer.
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Olam International is embroiled in a court case with a sugar mill in Brazil.
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Ghana Cocobod’s pre-export financing looks set to be oversubscribed when it closes within the next two weeks.
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Citi has arranged the first syndicated agricultural term loan in Bangladesh to a microfinance institution.
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Noble Group has signed loan agreements with IFC and IADB to finance the development of a soy crushing plant in Argentina.
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June
Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Nova America Agroenergia will approach the market for a pre-export financing.
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Providing a stronger presence
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Making the deals flow
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Rabobank has hired two new bankers for its agri-team specifically for European activities, and appointed a new TCF head in Shanghai.
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The European Bank Reconstruction and Development is providing finance to back Noble Group’s agri-projects in Ukraine and Turkey.
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Four MLAs have renewed, extended and upsized a revolving standby letter of credit and guarantee facility for supply chain manager Noble Group.
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May
Cambodia is planning to launch an export-import bank to help finance SMEs and develop the country’s agricultural export base.
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With the impact of the global recession and severe turbulence in the commodity markets, the commodity banks have it all to do to remain unscathed. However,despite the carnage, financiers are now focusing their attention on sure-fired commodity-sector deals with healthy margins and risk profiles as they slowly climb out of the turmoil. Jonathan Bell assesses the scene.
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Simon Pirani finds some interesting issues, trends and opportunities developing in the Russian and Ukrainian agri-sector.
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Compared to metals and oil, soft commodities prices are faring much better. But with some high profile banks exiting the sector, where is the market headed? Michele Martensen reports.
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Swiss commodity trading company Glencore has signed a $6.65 billion forward start facility, in a deal which saw market appetite take it up from the initial $5 billion.
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Japanese trade bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) is to lose half of its forfaiting team as part of a restructuring process.
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Pricing on Ghana Cocobod’s annual pre-export financing has risen by more than seven times as mandates are issued for its jumbo deal.
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March
Dubai Tea Trading Centre launches centralised storage, blending and value addition services along value chain.
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Syndication for commodity trading giant Trafigura's refinancing trade loan has closed significantly oversubscribed.
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Sowing the seeds for Kernel in Ukraine
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Adding security to commodity trading
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WestLB sweetens the outlook for Corol
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Keeping the wheels of trade well oiled
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Branching out into new sectors
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A template for the African agri-sector
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Return to form for annual softs deal
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Shariah solution for cotton pre-export
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BMO Capital Markets has signed a trade finance loan for Kazakhstan's Bank CenterCredit to support the export operations of grain producer Kazexportastyk.
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ING and Rabobank, as mandated lead arrangers, have launched a jumbo syndication for commodities trader Nidera.
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Olu Ajayi has returned to Nigeria after 25 years in the UK to head up Stanbic IBTC's structured trade finance division.
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With a flight to quality and relationships by those banks active in commodity finance in the region, there has been an upheaval in the market. For top-tier borrowers it is back to basics. For smaller borrowers it could be brutal.
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Syndication of a revolving credit facility for commodity trading giant, Trafigura Beheer, is set to close oversubscribed admit bankers close to the deal.
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China will cut export-related taxes and increase financial support for exporters to head off another sharp drop in demand for Chinese goods.
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Banks have signed a trade refinancing for London-based commodities broker ED&F Man Holdings.
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Strong sub-regional cooperation in trade and logistics is crucial to helping South-east Asia withstand the challenges of the current global economic downturn according to ADB.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) cross border structured finance team and commodity finance team will continue unchanged, despite the bank closing its long-term project financing business.
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Banks and corporates in Eastern and Central Europe have received the promise of further funds from the EBRD, the EIB Group, and the World Bank Group.
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February
The Inter-American Development Bank has signed a multi-million financing for Brazilian ethanol and sugar producer Companhia Nacional de Açúcar e Álcool to build two new plants.
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Glencore, the Swiss commodities firm, is in talks to sell its 51% stake in a Colombian oil refinery as it fails to secure sufficient credit to develop the project.
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Thai Exim International has opened a branch in Moscow to facilitate bilateral trade and payment guarantee services.
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Further details have been revealed about HSH Nordbank's realignment as reported in Trade Finance in October 2008.
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Oliver O'Connell looks at how the downturn and liquidity
squeeze have handed the Latin American soft commodities market a mixed bag.
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Bernard Belk and Roman Hohl from Swiss Re explain the benefits of managing volatility in grain volumes through crop shortfall insurance.
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In a surprise move, BNP Paribas (BNPP) has decided to disband its entire soft commodities team in the Americas including three managing directors.
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Commodity trading giant, Trafigura Beheer, has launched a syndicated refinancing.
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Sadia, the Brazilian poultry exporter is rumoured to be in talks with Brazil's state development bank, BNDES for financing. If it goes ahead the company will become the latest in a string of Brazilian commodity producers who have accessed state funds this year.
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Former ABN AMRO Latin America softs head has taken up the role of global head of soft commodities finance at Santander.
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January
Trade Finance attended the Canning House, LatinFinance, and the Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) event in London today to discuss how Latin America is responding to the global downturn. The keynote address was delivered by Enrique Garcia, president of CAF.
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Credit Suisse's trade finance division has been split into two separate sections; one which will deal with commodity and export finance, and another with documentary business and trade finance syndications.
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Commerzbank is strengthening its global export finance and structured trade finance activities by sending Donata Kozinska to establish a new structured export and trade finance (SETF) unit in Singapore.
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BBVA makes a bold, but measured, step to ramp up its commodity trade finance capabilities with the appointment of Sandra Nolasco from Fortis Brazil.
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Trade Finance learns that Belgian bank KBC slashed its structured commodity finance team by nearly two thirds last week in a bid to conserve capital for the bank's core functions.
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The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has approved a senior loan to establish a multi-million dollar facility offering short-term trade financing and medium-term investment loans to sugar and bio-energy companies and exporters in Brazil, Mexico and Central America.
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Bernard Belk and Roman Hohl from Swiss Re explain the benefits of managing volatility in grain volumes through crop shortfall insurance.
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Rosenberg & Fecci Consulting LLC has named Philip Guba as its new partner.
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New country heads are appointed in China, Indonesia and UAE to strengthen the bank's commodity capabilities.
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IADB to provide up to $75 million in long-term financing for state-of-the-art facility that adds value to soya exports through domestic processing.