ABN Amro has announced a number of hires and internal moves to strengthen its capabilities in key areas of commodity finance. Prabhat Vira, global head of commodity finance at ABN, says: “There are significant market opportunities deriving from structuring new and innovative commodity solutions and we are consequently strengthening our team by adding specialists with excellent credentials.”
Neil McGugan, a specialist in structured commodity financing for the oil and gas sector, has joined ABN Amro’s structured pre-export finance team from Calyon. McGugan has more than 25 years of banking experience, His specialist knowledge enhances ABN’s expertise in this vital market sector.
A further hire for the structured commodity finance team is David Hague who joins from WestLB. Hague’s background spans both structured commodity finance and private insurance. Both McGugan and Hague will report to Anushavan Simonyan, head of structured pre-export finance, based in Amsterdam.
Additionally, Ajay Kumar has moved across to structured commodity finance, to strengthen post-mandate transaction execution, monitoring and control of a rapidly growing deal flow. Kumar was formerly with ABN Amro’s cross-border structured financing business.
Frans Cornelissen has been appointed global head of structured inventory products. Formerly head of country risk management at ABN Amro, Cornelissen will lead the expansion of the bank’s existing product range to develop commodity inventory finance structures, such as onward sale transactions and commodity repos, which have the ability to provide just-in-time sourcing solutions to buyers and sellers of commodities.
Market trends indicate substantial potential for structured inventory financing and price-hedging solutions across the commodity supply chain.
Carlos Costa joins the bank’s Latin America team based in So Paulo, Brazil. With more than 20 years of banking experience, he makes a strong addition to the local team and reinforces the bank’s commitment to the commodity business in Latin America. Costa was formerly with ABN Amro’s agribusiness group and brings a wealth of business experience and structuring knowledge in several soft commodities including soybean, cotton and sugar.
Tjeerd Buurma has been promoted and has taken a more senior role concentrating on soft commodities such as coffee, cocoa and sugar.
Sander Stuijt has been promoted to vice-president and is now responsible for the all metal trader relationships. Buurma and Stuijt report to Mark Wolthuis, head of commodity client advisory.