Margin falls in Turkey and Russia dominated the Index in August and September. And Brazil’s election and the threat of war in the Middle East loom over all markets still.
Charles Carlson has been appointed global head of Standard Chartered’s structured export finance and forfaiting (SEFF) group. Carlson replaces Michal Hendrych who came into the job after Standard Chartered’s takeover of CIBC's structured trade finance business in 2000. Little is being said as to Hendrych's departure, but it was believed to have been engineered.
Omni Whittington’s Market Eye: Global Trade Review convinced us that they want a fresh approach to the market, discussing controversial issues with an independent and fresh debate and information exchange. So to support this goal, I will look
Short-term export credit insurance premia for European Union (EU)-based companies have reached 10-year highs after a catastrophic year when the US economy has leaked water, several emerging markets have imploded, and reinsurers hav
What ever happened to the convergence of the insurance and banking sectors, much vaunted in recent years Suffering from mismatches and misunderstandings among other things, argues Max Wheel, former corporate and trade banker, most recently as di
Markets and mergers: In December 2001, Gerling Credit Insurance and NCM merged to form Gerling NCM, a giant in the trade credit insurance market. Based in Cologne , Gerling holds 51% of shares, Swiss Re 25% and private investors 24%
First Solo Industries, now RBG Resources. The alleged fraud arising from the metals trader has caused a major shift in thinking among trade financiers. But as Mary Watkins reports, good documentation and checking of counterparties is not always a su
Neil Rutter is deputy chairman of the American Countertrade Association and manager for offset projects at Textron Systems. He has worked at, among others, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and ABB Financial Services all of which more than qualifies him
Dublin hosted the third annual International Forfaiting Association conference in September. Despite excellent organisation and enjoyable outings and talks, the issue of “satisfactory documentation” still haunted proceedings.
With the demise this year of giants like Enron, “derivative” is once again a dirty word. Often misunderstood, sometimes misused, it conjures up images of finance’s shadier side, more associated with risk-taking than risk management
Russia's SeverTek has secured a US$200mn dual tranche facility. JSC SeverTek is a special purpose joint-venture company owned by KomiTek of Russia (50%), a majority-owned subsidiary of Lukoil, and by Neste Production Russia Oy (50%), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortum of Finland. The loan comprises a US$100mn six-year A loan underwritten by the EBRD that will not be syndicated and a US$100mn six-year B loan underwritten by HVB Group and syndicated
Since ancient times Central Asia has occupied a special position in international trade and politics. From the fabled silk route, through to the strategic positioning of 19th century imperial powers and now with the discovery of va
Rudolf Putz has just stepped into Hugh Baylis' shoes as operations leader for the Trade Facilitation Programme at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Interviewed exclusively for GTR, Putz talks about the programme's record s
Cocobod borrows its biggest yet
A US$320mn receivables-backed loan for the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) has been increased in syndication to US$420mn the biggest amount the borrower has ever borrowed. Cocobod is the second largest produc
Creating a PPP for Africa: A unique public-private financing partnership, initiated by the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), has been set up to help address sub-Saharan Africa’s increasing constraints in av
The credit risk management pendulum: The key for developing a successful banking business will inevitably have, at its core, an effective risk management system. I do not believe that many senior banking executives would disagree with this comment,
Chilean mine refinances through RBS
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is arranging a US$147.8mn senior secured loan facility for Chile’s El Tesoro mine. There is also a US$36.9mn loan from Germany’s KfW. Both loans refinance an or
The privatisation of Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport has been catching the attention of project financiers recently. Opic and Kreditanstalt fr Wiederaufbau (KfW) are bankrolling most of the first phase of the Peruvian project US$178 million.
Cultivating Latin growth : In October the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) held a seminar looking at the challenge of agricultural trade liberalisation in Latin America . The process is a lengthy and complex one.
Pakistan risk premium improves
Due to improved foreign exchange reserves and positive steps taken by the government to improve the economy, the Asian Developme
Opening China’s project potential: Noble Trade Finance has made use of its expertise and contact base in China by arranging the financing, with RZB, for a pre-payment structured trade finance facility for Chinese zinc smelter, Xiangfen. T
Algerian oil and gas firm Sonatrach is strengthening its position outside of Algeria by being mandated by its owner, the government, to purchase stocks of companies that do business with Sonatrach and Algeria.
Trying to move up a tier: Jordan is aiming to become a serious software exporter by 2004. At a recent ICT event in the country, experts debated the potential for Jordan to attain this goal. Steve Rynecki, who attend
Bank launches new online services
ABN Amro Bank’s Global Trade & Advisory (GT&A) group has launched two new web-enabled capabilities via its global trade portal www.maxtrad.com : USD Rei
Three bank-backed institutions in the electronic trade finance space certainly cause a bit of confusion and uncertainty as to where each stand relative to the other. Swift, Bolero and Identrus have a lot of overlapping aims and roles. John Franck ta
Remember Covisint, that automotive exchange launched in early 2000 that promised to change the face of the supply chain forever Heard much about it lately You probably haven”t, for as Richard Willsher reports, it has not lived up to th
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Banks are jostling for a stake in South Africa’s promising renewable energy sector. Will this be the next best thing for the project finance market, asks GTR deputy editor Shannon Manders?
