In the dynamic landscape of international trade, one thing remains clear: access to capital is critical to the commodities ecosystem – fuelling the operations of suppliers, traders, and end-users alike. Yet, in recent years, this vital resource has become harder to secure. Capital is now more selective, more concentrated, and increasingly reserved for the select few. The commodity-backed structured trade finance industry, or “STF”, has stepped in to address this gap in the market. STF is a self-liquidating, collateralised, and de-risked approach to trade finance, tailored to address the foregoing gap.
But how does it really work? And more importantly, how can you access its benefits without running afoul of regulatory and legal pitfalls?
In the second episode of our Behind the Deal series, Sumeet Malhotra, our Singapore Partner and head of the firm’s Commodities and International Trade Practice, takes you behind the curtain. Drawing on his numerous years of real-world experiences, Sumeet delves deeper into the mitigation of recharacterisation risk in STF transactions.
