Deal news
Kazexportastyk signs $100m PXF... Mechel secures credit from VTB... LUKoil acquires Akpet
... Evraz signs with VEB

People & places: Credit insurance costs set to rise, warns Euler Hermes
The cost of credit insurance is set to rise after Euler Hermes, the world’s biggest credit insurer, cut its 2008 profit forecasts and warned that its combined ratio may reach 100% before the end of the year.

People & places: EBRD to invest record amount in 2009
The EBRD is proposing to invest up to €7bn in 2009, a record amount intended to ameliorate the worst effects of the global financial crisis in the region.

Lars Millberg: ‘How I started on The Benche’
Lars Millberg, Global Head of Trade Finance at SEB, says that he had the idea for setting up The Benche, a newly launched neutral web site for trade finance professionals to swap knowledge and ideas, after he first started exploring Web 2.0 web sites.

People & places: EBRD disburses first factoring loan in Ukraine
The EBRD has finalised its first factoring facility in Ukraine in a deal with Ukreximbank arranged under the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme.

People & places: ECGD to continue Fixed-Rate Export Finance scheme
ECGD will introduce a temporary £1bn ($1.48bn) guarantee scheme aimed at smaller exporters in a bid to encourage exports through the recession.

People & places: BPN president arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering
The former president of the bank at the centre of a legal battle with SFC Swiss Forfaiting Company over an unpaid letter of credit (LC) has been arrested on suspicion of tax fraud and money laundering.

People & places: Metals suffer Depression-era price plunge
Metal prices have fallen as far in the past six months as they did during the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to Barclays Capital’s commodities researcher Kevin Norrish.

People & places: Metals suffer Depression-era price plunge
Metal prices have fallen as far in the last six months as they did during the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to Barclays Capital’s commodities researcher Kevin Norrish.

People & places: Simonson named CFO and senior vice president of US Exim
John Simonson has been named chief financial officer and senior vice president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Exim), the official export-credit agency of the US.

News analysis: BHP drops bid for Rio Tinto
Mining giant BHP Billiton has been forced to ditch its hostile takeover bid for rival Rio Tinto as a result of the plunge in commodity prices and the worsening world economy.

Deal news: EBRD lends $30m for Ukraine’s Desnagrain
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has extended a five-year $30m working-capital loan to Ukrainian agribusiness Desnagrain.

News: Alfa-Bank Ukraine scoops dual tranche loan
Alfa-Bank Ukraine has secured a $23.5m and €26.935m dual-tranche term facility, paying a margin of 200 basis points over Libor.

Deal news: Huomei Hongjun secures $250m debut PXF
Inner Mongolia Huomei Hongjun Aluminium & Electricity, the Chinese aluminium producer, has finally drawn down its $250m three-year pre-export loan facility, which concluded over the summer.

Sponsored statement: Financial Tech buys UK’s ACE Group
The acquisition marks Financial Technologies Group’s foray into African and European markets.

People & places: SMBC beefs up London trade finance expertise
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe has beefed up its London-based Global Trade Finance Department with the recruitment of Pepi Bedi and Shirley Mutter.

People & places: Trading places at the top for Santander
Jorge Tapia has taken over from Federico Papa as Global Head of Trade, Export and Commodity Finance at Santander Global Banking and Markets, stepping up from Global Head of Trade Finance following Papa’s promotion to Global Transaction Banking (GTB) Head of Europe.

People & places: IFC to double trade finance support programme
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank, is doubling its Global Trade Finance Program from $1.5bn to $3bn to help banks in in 66 countries to continue supporting international trade.

People & places: Eskom secures $500m from AfDB
Eskom, the under-fire South African electricity monopoly, has secured a $500m 20-year loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the biggest ever private-sector loan granted by the Bank.

Russia’s Bank Petrocommerce secures $106m syndicated loan
Bank Petrocommerce, the Russian bank founded by LUKoil and now controlled by IFD Capital, has secured a $106m syndicated term-loan facility.