isramart: Standard bank wins carbon deal award

Isramart news:
The Environment Finance Magazine has awarded Standard bank the Carbon Finance deal of the year, raising the bank’s profile in the largely untapped yet profitable environmental market.

Standard bank, the parent company of Stanbic bank Uganda, won the award in recognition of its 15 million euro advance towards Camco International Limited to produce 5.8 million tonnes of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). CERs are carbon credits which can be traded on a futures or spot market.

“The Camco deal was particularly interesting in terms of the development of structures that are tailored to the specific risks in CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) projects, which we did by using a combination of classical structured commodity finance techniques adapted to the particular needs of the carbon sector,” notes Geoff Sinclair, Global Head of Carbon Sales and Trading at Standard Bank, in a press statement.

Standard bank was also recognised for its resolve to invest money in such projects amidst the financial crisis when companies are starved of cheaper loans. The World Bank earlier released a report showing that the carbon market had been hit by the financial crisis.

“It is clear that environmental markets have been far from immune from the financial crisis, and several of the landmark deals we have given awards to this year have been structured to help to address the new market realities faced by companies in this sector” said Environment Finance editor, Mark Nicholls

Standard bank’s top recognition in the environment market is expected to attract the attention of some Ugandan companies trying to form Clean Development Mechanism projects but lack the required amount of money to become successful.

WENRECO, a power plant in West Nile, has a CDM, while Kakira Sugar Works is in the final stages of starting one. The Environment Finance Magazine is based in London. The magazine’s intention is to raise awareness about the financial benefits and risks in global environmental markets.
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