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S&P Global Ratings has published its infrastructure investor outlook,  ‘What Matters For Infrastructure Investors in 2019: Brexit, Populism And Country Risks’ , examining the prevailing concerns among infrastructure investors  in the current economy. These include: heightening policy risk, country and sovereign risk, and the overarching impact these could have on contractual and regulatory stability. 

Examples include the risk of a no-deal Brexit; disagreement over funding for US infrastructure projects; the key elections scheduled within a number of emerging markets; and credit-transitioning risk in China. 

Aspects of the report have been covered by IPE Real Assets and IPFA.

Writing for African Review, Chris Ash, Managing Director at ExWorks Capital, discusses Africa’s trade finance evolution and how alternative lenders are providing a way forward for the region’s SMEs.

Despite the fact export and import opportunities in Africa are in abundance, a persisting trade finance gap continues to see SMEs underserved when it comes to accessing the necessary liquidity for growth. Chris discusses how specialist financiers are not only helping to solve this issue, but also adding value to the local economy, fomenting the  creation of more jobs, more advanced infrastructure and a better quality of life for local people.

The article was published on page 16 of African Review‘s March 2019 issue. You can read the full article here.

Writing for Trade Finance Global, Matt Reed, Associate Director at RedRidge Diligence Services, discusses the evolving landscape of trade finance due diligence, and why – thanks to mounting regulation, in influx of new lenders and increasingly complex transaction types –  ensuring due diligence is entrusted to specialist providers is increasingly the key to mitigating risk and ensuring a business stays on top of regulatory developments.

To read the full article, please click here.

International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Chief Chris Southworth insisted British companies will require the “closest possible relationship” with the European Union to continue trading well after Brexit. The business expert claimed the best possible solution to protect UK trade after March 2019 would be to keep the United Kingdom inside both the single market and the customs union.

According to the proposed Brexit deal Theresa May unveiled earlier this month, Britain would only maintain membership of the two EU institutions should the UK and EU fail to reach an agreement on Northern Ireland before December 2020.

Click here to access the full article.

CEO Christoph Gugelman and CFO Nils Behling, Co-Founders of Tradeteq – a marketplace for trade finance assets – explain to Joy Macknight the hurdles to treating trade finance as an asset class, as well as the benefits to be gained by doing so.

Click below for the full video.

ICC United Kingdom’s Secretary General, Chris Southworth, penned a letter to the Financial Times on the red-tape burden of Brexit and the impact on small businesses.

“All the excellent work to ensure port operations remain efficient post Brexit should not distract from the fact that the burden, risk and cost of new trading arrangements (Report, February 5) will be shifted upstream to companies who will have to do all the additional paperwork before their goods reach the port.

The responsibilities for fulfilling tax, duties, tariffs, customs declarations and clearances and passport requirements will all fall on trading companies, most of which are small companies with limited, if any, capacity to absorb or pass on the additional costs. There are approximately 220,000 trading companies in the UK — the majority of which only trade with Europe — and they have done no preparation at all. The window to train, educate and prepare is impossibly tight.”

Click here to read the full letter.

Tradeteq’s Christoph Gugelmann and Nils Behling feature in Financial IT’s 2019 Winter Issue.

The pair discuss the problems Tradeteq solves, the technologies that underpin its marketplace, its unique points and how it has developed so rapidly in just a year.

To read the full Q&A, see pages 30 and 31 in the Winter Issue here.

Writing for London Business Matters – the official publication of the London Chamber of Commerce – Chris Ash, Managing Director at ExWorks Capital, discusses the way in which specialist trade financiers are providing opportunities for SMEs in light of increasing regulatory burdens and global economic uncertainty.

The article was published in London Business Matters February edition. To read more, please click here (pg.20).