Let’s face it; in the world of trade finance, last year was like none that we had ever seen before. If you wanted to do deals that stood out from the crowd in 2009, then you had to get inventive and come up with new structures, new markets – developed as well as emerging, and new clients – or old ones coming back to trade finance in all its forms.
Yes it was tough. Many banks had to wrap themselves in endless refinancings or restructurings. But many also got on with arranging new money deals, getting back to basics and into trade finance in all its glory. As regular readers know, we do not have categories – it simply does not work within trade, we have chosen what we see as the best. Within our selection here – we have a total of 85 Deals of the Year (DoYs), no restructurings and only one refinancing. And, not surprisingly given the tough financial climate, export credit agency-backed transactions figure large. But also this year we feature a much more diverse range of trade financing structures/products in our selected deals than we have in previous years, including factoring, accounts receivables financings, as well as some inspired agency programmes. And, of course, big pre-export financings in the CIS and Russia are very much in the minority.
In terms of geographical scope, transactions involving China and South-East Asia, in particular, have grown considerably – with around 16 deals. There are 11 deals in Russia and five in Brazil. But spreading the net much further through 2009, financial institutions have also come up with winning deals in Angola, Bhutan, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mauritania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa to name a few.
Trade Finance Magazine would like to thank all those institutions that submitted transactions and took the time to cooperate with us through the evaluation and write-up periods. Congratulations to all the DoY winners!
Click here for the full list of Deals of the Year 2009
Trade Finance annual Awards Dinners
All MLAs, ECAs, DFIs, law firms and corporates involved in winning Deals of the Year win a DoY award. DoY awards are presented at our annual award dinners in London (29 June), NewYork (24 June) and Hong Kong (8 July). The evenings are combined with the Trade Finance annual Awards for Excellence (winners of that poll are announced in our June issue).
To book tables or for further information please contact:
Dominik Kloiber +44-20 7779 8099 dkloiber@euromoneyplc.com
Joel Gleghorn +44 20 7779 8352 jgleghorn@euromoneyplc.com