JB's weekly round-up - 30 September 2013

Welcome to the inaugural weekly round-up of the TXF news service.

Each Monday, we will be sending our weekly market news roundup. This will include a short commentary on the key stories of the week, as well as links to our top picks. We hope you enjoy it, and would welcome your feedback. It is entirely free, so please feel free to share with your colleagues, contacts and clients.

Coming down from Sibos Dubai
 
September is always a busy time for the trade sector as many people crank up the gears following vacations etc. This year, mid-September saw Dubai play host to Sibos, and with over 7,500 registered at the event the global transaction banking world was very well represented. Hats off to Swift for a marvellously well-organised event, with much more emphasis placed on trade finance than in previous years.
 
With the introduction of the rules for the Bank Payment Obligation (BPO) earlier this year, Sibos Dubai was always going to include significant debate on the topic – but this was just one of many major issues affecting the trade sector taken up by panel sessions. A full report on Sibos will appear on the TXF website later this week.

Download our free Trade and Supply Chain Finance Special Report 2013, which was distributed at Sibos
 
Cocobod – who calls the shots?

There has, of course, also been no real lull in trade transactions  - although some transactions have rumbled slowly on to their closing. One such classic example is the annual Ghana Cocobod financing which reached its formal signing stage only on 20 September. The transaction, which is the largest soft commodity deal in sub-Saharan Africa, is a straightforward pre-export financing.
 
What is interesting about this year’s deal though, is that it has changed in its arranging mandate format from last year. Last year there were 13 MLAs as the banks chose not to compete with each other, and this year it went back to its traditional MLA tender process – with six MLAs making up the winning bank group. Perhaps last year was a corrective exception? Nevertheless, as banks look more closely at costs, cooperation and competition are topics more firmly on the minds of banks today than ever before.
 
Gunvor looks to local finance

In the energy sector, trading company Gunvor is pushing ahead with its drive to secure financing for its strategic investments. Last week saw the firm secure $675 million in finance for its Ust Luga Oil Products Terminal in Russia. With the project in Russia, Gunvor has been keen to bring in Russian banks – and the deal saw Gazprombank and VTB Bank join Credit Suisse, RBI, Natixis, Bank of China and ABN AMRO come into the transaction as arrangers.
 
Changes on the global heads frontier

There continues to be a considerable amount of personnel changes in the trade sector at the current time, and one example of this over the past week is the global head appointment at ABN AMRO where the bank has appointed Jan-Maarten Mulder to the new position of global head of commodities – within the overall energy, commodities and transportation (ECT business). 
 
But this is only part of the story, the reorganisation has also seen the departure from the bank of Harris Antoniou who was the global head of ECT. Antoniou, who left the bank in August, has been replaced by Maarten Terlouw – who was previously global head of energy.
 
And finally…

Elsewhere, HSBC has recruited Bart Ras from Citi. At HSBC, Ras will have the title of global head of business development for the bank’s global trade and receivables finance (GTRF) business.

That's all for this week. Please feel free to share this with your colleagues and clients - TXF News is subscription free.

Cheers 

Jonathan Bell
Editor-in-Chief