60-Second Interview: Cécile Besse Advani

Trade & Forfaiting Review speaks with Cécile Besse Advani, head of Turkey, Central Asia and Caucasus for export finance Europe at BNP Paribas.

Q: What are the growth prospects for the Caspian region right now?

A: The entire Caspian region is growing at a very impressive rate, with special focus on both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan thanks to the oil and gas sector. The region is benefiting from increased levels of oil and gas production as well as important transit fees, generating the emergence of strategic commercial and political partnerships.

Q: What areas of the Caspian region are attractive to BNP Paribas?

A: Besides oil and gas, the high pace of development is creating needs in infrastructure sectors, mostly for outdated or non-existent roads, urban development, power generation, telecoms etc.

We’re interested in addressing those needs that ultimately support the economic development of the region and have a direct impact on the local population.

Q: Is there anything specific you’re focusing on?

A: We are concentrating on infrastructure development for which long-term financing brought by export finance is often an appropriate solution. And we’re leveraging on inter-regional links to better address our customer needs.

More than elsewhere our strategy is to propose not only attractive financing but also imaginative ones to cope with the local constraints and hurdles.

Also, the political and commercial focus in some of the countries is enabling the relevant export credit agencies to follow this strategic move. BNP Paribas is accompanying these strategic commercial and political waves present in the Caspian area.

Q: What type of deals is the bank doing in these countries?

A: Some countries are more mature than others in terms of transaction structures. Energy and commodities financing, export finance and project finance are involved in the entire region.

As far as export finance is concerned, we were involved in some truly innovative and sizable transactions in the region in 2005. To name a few:

As joint lead arranger, we closed a Hermes-backed export financing dedicated to the 500MW Sumgayit power station in Azerbaijan amounting to €300m ($358.4m).

In Turkey, as lead arranger we closed the first Japanese Nexi untied financing for a direct corporate name, Erdemir, for $200m. The second tranche for $300m closed in 2005. It was also the first multi-currency financing done through Nexi.

Also, in Kazakhstan, we signed a €200m multi-source framework agreement with Bank TuranAlem to support exports.