David Wightman and Andrew Robison have moved from WestLB to Banco Espirito Santo (BES) in London. Wightman is director, structured trade finance (STF), while Robison is associate director.
Wightman was most recently head of metals and mining in the commodity finance department at WestLB. He has worked also at UBS, was a founder member of KBC Bank’s Global Trade Finance Group, and a founder director of the niche structuring company Africaxis.
Robison was most recently an associate director at WestLB with Wightman and has worked at Banque Nationale de Paris and KBC Bank’s Global Trade Finance Group.
Both have extensive backgrounds in the Angolan and the recent Sonangol oil financings (Wightman since 1989) as well as origination of STF transactions globally but with most activity in the African and Central Asian markets.
The BES STF unit is seeking to leverage its existing banking presence in Angola and Brazil in terms of STF opportunities, as well as other STF transactions globally. BES through its subsidiary BES do Oriente based in Macao also provides access to the Chinese import market.
The STF unit reports to Rui Guerra, head of international business at Banco Espirito Santo in Lisbon who led BES’s mandated lead arranger position in last year’s US$2.35bn Sonangol transaction.