Winners and losers

The judging for TFR’s Deals of the Year was arguably the most challenging we’ve ever done: it was a busy year and never before have there been so many deals struck, nor for so much. Furthermore, the credit crunch gave an added end-of-year stimulus to the trade finance sector, helping to raise margins while nevertheless making syndications more challenging.

All that was fully reflected in the volume of submissions. Every entry was screened first of all to make sure that it was, indeed, genuinely trade finance – because too many entries clearly weren’t.

The next step was to examine them in greater depth, starting with the various claims that entrants had made. Did the deals really represent a first in some way? Were they truly the biggest?

Finally, we needed to investigate the remaining deals still further. What was it that might make them an award winner? Where was the innovation? How did they reflect the expertise of the professionals behind them? What, in short, made them genuinely worthy of a TFR Deal of the Year award?

All were closely scrutinised and if they failed any one of these tests, they were sidelined. Some organisations submitted deals by the truckload, when it was quality, innovation and excellence we were looking for, not quantity. There were also a number of good deals that fell just under the wire, but are nevertheless deserving of an honourable mention. They include:

HSBC’s $228.5m financing of the Palapa-D satellite for Indonesia’s Indosat;
Société Générale’s $2bn pre-export financing for Russian metals conglomerate Mechel;
Raifferisen Zentralbank Oesterrich’s $235m pre-export finance deal for Montenegro’s Kombinat Aluminijuma aluminium smelting giant;
Also in aluminium, JP Morgan/Calyon’s $150m pre-export finance for Argentina’s Aluar;
Kyzylkum’s $30m financing, led by Citi and supported by Japanese export credit agency NEXI;
Banco Bilbao’s $100m structured letter of credit and discount facility for food company Bunge.

Please read on for our full TFR Deals of the Year awards coverage.

Graeme Burton
Managing editor

And the winners are...

Al Bilad Islamic Bank – Iraq
Ambatovy/Dynatec – Madagascar
Avozagalmash/Ukreximbank – Ukraine
Belagroprombank – Belarus
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce – Brazil
Destilmex – Mexico
Duferco – Switzerland
Henan Yuguang Zinc – China
Evraz – Russia
Ghana Cocoa Board – Ghana
Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa – Mozambique
International Truck and Engine Corporation – USA
JSC Madneuli/LLC Quartzite – Georgia
Knorr-Bremse – Germany
Metinvest – Ukraine
Montanwerke Brixlegg – Austria
Noble Group – India
Norilsk Nickel – Russia
Platinum Group – Philippines
Pluspetrol Norte – Peru
PrivatBank/Telesystems of Ukraine – Ukraine
Reliance Communications – India
Sterling Energy – Mauritania
TBC Bank – Georgia
United Company Rusal – Russia
West Coast Power – Sri Lanka
Zao Profit – Russia

Strictly trade finance

Rollo Tomasi, one of the judges of this year’s TFR Deals of the Year awards, has some words of advice for future entrants.

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