Deals of the Year 2009: Hansen Wind Energy Drives
China is more commonly associated with coal-fired electric power with, it is said, the ribbon cut on a new power plant every week, just to keep up with demand – rather than wind power, despite the number of wind turbines manufactured in the fast-growing country.

Deals of the Year 2009: NLMK
Deals involving Russian metals giants were not exactly the most popular prospects in 2009, given the ongoing restructuring negotiations between 70+ banks and aluminium maker Rusal.

Deals of the Year 2009: HubCo
This was another early deal win for Citi, with both of our round-one judges giving it a resounding thumbs up.

Deals of the Year 2009: Gazprom Marketing & Trading
Simple, but effective; closing oversubscribed; and, with an innovative security structure. They are just some of the reasons our judges gave for voting this Barclays Capital syndicated standby letter of credit (LC) deal with Gazprom Marketing & Trading (M&T) a TFR Deal of the Year.

Deals of the Year 2009: Ferrexpo
Given the protracted restructuring at aluminium giant Rusal in Russia, the seemingly endless political uncertainty in Ukraine, the global financial crisis and the volatile pricing of metals, it may be surprising that anyone wanted to be involved in a metals pre-export finance (PXF) in Eastern Europe in 2009.

Deals of the Year 2009: EGPC
EGPC, the national oil company of Egypt, certainly stepped out into the pre-export finance (PXF) market in 2009 with this $900m facility with BTMU and Morgan Stanley the outright leads.

Deals of the Year 2009: ANZAG
In the book, How to Get Rich, self-made publishing millionaire Felix Dennis warns against factoring – you’re only taking money from the future and from there onwards, it’s a downward death-spiral, he says.

Deals of the Year 2009: Balfour Beatty Ibérica
"Must have been like herding cats through a catnip farm. My verdict? Extreme structured trade finance: should get its own programme on the Discovery Channel."

Deals of the Year 2009: Ghana Cocoa Board
Last year was an unusual year for TFR’s Deals of the Year Awards – the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) wasn’t in it.

Deals of the Year 2009: DEWA
A Deal of the Year Award does not necessarily have to be the biggest or most exotic. Sometimes, simply pulling together multiple participants, overcoming market hysteria and seeing the ‘long game’ is what really raises eyebrows and the interest of our judges.

People & places: UK exports plunge in January despite falling pound
UK exports fell by £1.4bn ($2.1bn) – 6.9% – to £19.5bn ($29.15bn) in a surprise month-on-month fall from December 2009.

People & places: Kees Hoving appointed Regional Head at Deutsche
Kees Hoving has moved from Royal Bank of Scotland to become Managing Director, Regional Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management Corporates Business for Germany, at Deutsche Bank.

Deal news: EBRD funds Serbian gas network upgrades
EBRD has made a €150m sovereign loan to Serbia’s Srbijagas, the state-owned gas transmission, storage and distribution company, to enable it to upgrade the country’s gas transmission network.

People & places: GE’s Jeff Immelt to speak at Ex-Im Bank conference
General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and James Owens, CEO of Caterpillar, will deliver the opening speeches at the Export-Import Bank of the United States 2010 annual conference in Washington, DC on 11 March 2010.

People & places: Russian oil companies line up loan mandates
Russian oil producers Bashneft, Gazprom Neft and Tatneft are all expected to tap international markets during the year as liquidity improves.

People & places: Zurich promotes political risk head Dan Riordan
Insurance giant Zurich has named Daniel Riordan, Head of Zurich’s Surety, Credit and Political Risk group, as President of its North America Commercial Specialties unit.

People & places: Compensation after air freight price fixing cartel busted
Companies that purchased international air cargo or air freight services in Europe, between 2000 and 2006 inclusive may be able to claim for refunds for the amount overcharged due to alleged price-fixing by airline companies.

People & places: Russian government to seize gas field from TNK-BP
TNK-BP stands to lose control of the Kovytka gas field following a recommendation from the Russia’s environmental protection agency, RosPrirodNadzor.

People & places: Relief as Kazakh banks respect ‘qualifying’ trade
BTA Bank, the largest bank in Kazakhstan, has published its term sheet setting out how creditors will be treated in its forthcoming restructuring.

People & places: Trade finance default register ‘to be ready by March’
The ICC-ADB Trade Finance Default Register initiative is on course to finish collecting data from participating banks by the end of January 2010 and will present the data publicly in March 2010.

People & places: Australia backs PNG gas project with $500m loan
The Australian government has backed the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea with a loan of $500m (AUD547m) to support the participation of Australian suppliers in one of the biggest natural gas projects in the region.

People & places: Ferrexpo secures $230m PXF
Swiss iron ore producer Ferrexpo has secured a $230m pre-export financing loan, making it the first metals and mining company with assets in the CIS to conclude such a deal since the start of the global financial crisis.

People & places: Mehmet Saydam takes new role at Deutsche Bank
Mehmet Saydam, Director at Deutsche Bank in the Structured Commodity and Trade Finance team, has joined ‘the bond brigade’ in a promotion to the role of Head of Commodities, Russia and CIS, in Global Capital Markets at the bank.