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Gunvor Singapore has secured a US$600mn borrowing base facility in support of its Asian oil business, with Komgo deployed as a digital agent for the first time in any of the energy trading giant’s financing arrangements. 

The Singapore trader, a wholly owned subsidiary of Geneva-headquartered Gunvor Group, announced on May 2 it had closed the one-year facility, which covers import finance as well as funding inventory, receivables and hedging positions. 

Natixis’ local branch acts as facility and security agent, while other participating banks include the Singapore branches of ING Bank and Crédit Agricole, as well as Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. Arab Banking Corporation’s Singapore branch joins via accordion. 

Melissa Widjaja, Gunvor’s head of structured trade finance for Asia Pacific, hails the support from “core banks and new ones”, saying the company is targeting the growing logistics needs of the region. 

Komgo’s solutions are to be used for monitoring inventory, receivables, liabilities and hedging, as well as providing a digital reporting tool “to reduce manual operations while increasing transparency for lenders”, Gunvor says. 

“This will help automate, simplify and authenticate reporting, ensuring greater transactional security,” the trader adds. 

Nicolas Djelalian, managing director of Komgo Asia, says: “This deployment is particularly important in Asia, where this type of financing is less common than in other regions. 

“We believe the transformation of how banks and corporates use data to communicate will bring tremendous value to the entire ecosystem, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of this innovation.” 

L-Thanh Nguyen, Natixis’ Asia Pacific head of global trade, says the facility demonstrates “digital transformation of a conventional type of financing to reduce operational handling and reporting”. 

In June 2021, Gunvor’s Singapore business closed a heavily oversubscribed US$830mn revolving credit facility from a syndicate of 25 banks. 

It has since agreed several high-value transactions, including a US$1.45bn borrowing base facility with a group of 16 international banks in support of its US operations, as well as US$1.64bn RCF used for general purposes in Europe. 

Gunvor also agreed a US$1.56bn syndicated borrowing base facility in January this year to finance liquefied natural gas operations, which was also heavily oversubscribed. 

The company has been one of several energy companies to post record profits in the last year, after fluctuating commodity prices created a highly lucrative environment for traders.  

Gunvor Group announced last month its net profit for 2022 was US$2.36bn, an all-time high and more than treble the figure for the previous year.