Global Trade Review (GTR)’s Post

German state-owned development institution KfW Ipex-Bank has led an export credit facility worth €157mn to enable the re-development of a 146km stretch of road in Cuando Cubango province, Angola.

The International Finance Corporation is suing Lebanon’s Bank Audi in a bid to force repayment of a loan package provided to boost trade and investment in the Middle East and North Africa. In a July 31 filing to the UK courts, the IFC and a debt fund it manages – the IFC Capitalisation Fund – say they are together owed US$234mn for loans provided to Bank Audi, Lebanon’s largest bank, a decade ago.

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation has extended a US$100mn financing package to Turkish lender TKYB to support the working capital and trade financing needs of Turkey’s agriculture sector. The deal is guaranteed by the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, and is structured in two tranches, a spokesperson for ITFC tells GTR.

German lender Commerzbank is set to open a representative office in Lithuania in December, aiming to expand its trade and project finance across the Baltic region. The office will serve as a hub for the bank’s operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which Commerzbank says are of great importance to its international growth strategy. It will also seek to deepen cooperation with the public sector and local financial services.

Bahrain-headquartered lender BBK is seeking to expand its trade finance offering and improve operational efficiency through a partnership with DP World Trade Finance. BBK, which has operations in the UAE, India and Turkey as well as its home markets of Bahrain and Kuwait, says the partnership combines its banking offering – which includes letters of credit, guarantees and documentary collections – with DP World’s end-to-end oversight of supply chains.

The Saudi Export-Import Bank has provided 128% more financing and insurance in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The Asian Development Bank is backing efforts by asset manager Keppel and Enterprise Singapore to seek out sustainability-related financing opportunities worth US$800mn across the Asia Pacific region.