- The Facility will support the Asian fuel oil business and incorporate new digital reporting tools
According to the company’s website news release on May 2, 2023, Gunvor Singapore Pte. Ltd. (“Gunvor Singapore”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gunvor Group Ltd (“Gunvor” or the “Company”), has closed a US $600 million borrowing base facility (“Facility”) to support the working capital needs of its Asian fuel oil business. The Facility, which has a one-year tenure and an accordion feature, covers import finance and funding of inventory, receivables and hedging positions, and will use Komgo’s new innovative digital solution for monitoring and reporting.
The Facility and Security agent is Natixis CIB, Singapore Branch. Other participating banks include ING Bank N.V. Singapore Branch, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank Singapore Branch, and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC. Arab Banking Corporation B.S.C. Singapore branch, joined via accordion.
For the first time in any of its facilities, Gunvor has appointed digital trade service provider Komgo to be Digital Agent on the Facility. Komgo’s solutions will be deployed for monitoring of inventory, receivables, liabilities and hedging, and will further provide a digital reporting tool to reduce manual operations while increasing transparency for lenders. This will help automate, simplify and authenticate reporting, ensuring greater transactional security.
Gunvor is a key player in the fuel oil market in Singapore, a core industry in the South East Asian trading hub, and draws on the region’s sophisticated storage and shipping infrastructure for its blending and logistics activities.
“The strong support Gunvor received from both its core banks and new ones underscores the important role the Company plays in the regional maritime and shipping industry,” said Melissa Widjaja, Head of Structured Trade Finance Asia-Pacific at Gunvor. “Gunvor will continue to grow and serve the growing logistics needs of the Asia-Pacific region.”
“We are proud to be entrusted by Gunvor Singapore to lead this financing activity. Besides supporting our client’s growth and development in the regional maritime and shipping industry, we are happy to be part of this digital transformation of a conventional type of financing to reduce operational handling and reporting,” said L-Thanh Nguyen, Head of Global Trade, Asia Pacific, Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking.
“This deployment is particularly important in Asia, where this type of financing is less common than in other regions,” said Nicolas Djelalian, Managing Director, Komgo Asia. “We believe the transformation of how banks and corporates use data to communicate will bring tremendous value to the entire ecosystem, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of this innovation.”
