CHAIRMAN’S BLOG
The end of an extraordinary Year. To sum it up; 4 tombstones vs. 12 the Year before. A Year that went from bad to worse to hope then to bad and worse again and now we are hoping.
Also a Year when Hong Kong bankers must have been the most active in the World pounding the streets looking to give as many loans as possible against Hong Kong Government guarantees. One of our clients was even persuaded to take a 3 Year term loan instead of the 120 day revolving trade receivable finance they requested.
A Year when some foreign bank branches in Asia blamed everybody else for their losses on trade finance loans as the Chinese factories lost their order books and trade flows and the same banks Head Offices were being bailed out of greater problems by tax payers due to lack of control and greed. Pity for the Chinese factory that gets a legal claim simply because the Bank tightens its policy after losing money on unrelated paper trails with no substance.
Why were lenders surprised by the tightening of the insurance markets as lenders poured resources into claims rather then work outs?
A Year were those who still had cash waited and waited for assets to get cheaper and cheaper and in many cases are still waiting. For intermediaries it was like a lucky draw win if an investor chose your deal from the “hundreds” around.
A Year when many old friends became enemies.
There was some good, surprise, surprise!
China became more accessible and competitive for smaller finance houses as big boys retreated to plan their Rugby 7s boxes for next Year.
Cambodia and Philippines offered deal opportunities for genuine advisors/arrangers.
Opportunities were taken in the insurance market as the sentiment swung from trade credit to sovereign opportunities and back to credit again.
A Year where those staff who remained loyal learnt more in 1 Year than 3 previous Years. A Year where other staff gave up and went seeking new pastures.
Things have to change in some way in 2010, and with the return of West Bromwich Albion to Premier League we are optimistic.
 TFC BROKERAGE LTD
As a diverse financial group we are pleased to announce that our "staid" insurance brokerage business was once again a significant contributor to Group profit. Having struggled with previous employers to convince them of the benefit and potential profitability of an insurance business TFC's Chairman, David Sullivan is pleased TFC got the benefit at least "Mark Cooper is the best risk manager around and we have built a business around identifying and covering variable business risks".
Whilst trade and political risk capacities have contracted the product has paid out "billions" in claims and the contribution of insurance to recovery in the extreme market conditions this Year has been huge. The cheap comments that "insurance doesn't pay out" will no longer be a topic at the Bankers Club.
 TFC Capital (Philippines) Inc
Our Philippines office has been very active since its official opening on 1st October 2009. TFC has been appointed as fund arranger on the following projects; USD 50mln raise for a Hotel/Casino project, sale of iron ore tailings stock pile for a major nickel producer, USD 40mln raise for a Company developing biofuel, USD 20mln raise for a gold mining project, strategic equity raise for a company dealing with cut flowers and TFC continues its cooperation with a major hotel brand for Philippines development.
TFC Capital (Cambodia) PTE, LTD
The office opened in January 2009 with a dedication and patience to develop (create and structure) agricultural projects. As we near the Year end the first two projects are nearly ready for take off after 10 months of slow, deliberate preparation. A Singaporean grower will start using our leased land about 1 hour outside Phnom Penh (Kompong Chhnang) for cultivation of organic mushroom in the first phase. A second and larger scale project in Kompong Thom Province, will see our leased land used for hybrid rice growing and seedling development with a Singapore listed agri-group. This would be the first industrialised rice cultivation project in Cambodia. A rice cultivation and farm management model is now being developed for repeat projects and will target Middle Eastern countries.
We sincerely wish every reader a very happy and successful 2010.
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