The winners of the 2017 TFG International Trade Awards were announced this week (on Wednesday 1st November). The awards recognised and rewarded innovative practice in the industry.
Addressing the trade finance gap
With the recently announced $1.5tn trade finance gap, primarily due to lack of SME finance and trade financing in Asian countries, the international trade awards looked at those stepping in to bridge and address this shortfall, along with ancillary products and services helping businesses trade internationally.
Each category was judged by a panel of professional judges and 2017 was the biggest awards to date, choosing from over 100 companies across 5 markets.
Trade Finance Global is the leading authority and information hub for businesses seeking trade finance, export finance and supply chain finance.
What it means to win
Tavistock Group backed Ultimate Finance is continuing to invest within the Trade Finance sector. Vince Tovey, Head of Trade at Ultimate Finance said: “2018 will see Ultimate increasing its market share within the Trade Finance sector as we build on the good work we have done in 2017. This work demonstrates our willingness to support SME’s who are looking for an alternative to their current facilities and for a solution that can be a little more creative and fit their cashflow requirements in a more dynamic way.”
Greensill Capital (Best Supply Chain Financier) on the other hand have been innovating in their product offering. Lex Greensill, CEO, said: “As the WTO continued to forecast sluggish growth in global trade for 2017, we found at Greensill Capital more opportunity than ever to help our clients unlock capital and put it to work. We expanded our product offering into aircraft finance in conjunction with Boeing, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Marsh. We also financed billions of dollars of large, complex acquisitions such as Arrium Steel in South Australia on behalf of Liberty House.”
Winner of Best Alternative Financier, Ebury, have seen significant expansion in European markets, having doubled company size in the last year. Juan Lobato, CEO, said: “In terms of challenges, 2017 has been a year in which SME’s in the UK had to begin to adjust to the new Post-Brexit economy. We have seen a lot of businesses adapt to the changing tides by beginning to source goods from within the UK. It seems that the larger margins inherent when importing from location such as China have been reduced by a weaker Pound.”
The winners
Winners for the Awards and Interviews with CEOs can be found on the Trade Finance Global website (https://www.tradefinanceglobal.com/services/international-trade-awards-2017/), and were as follows:
Best Trade Finance Company – Ultimate Finance (Winner), Woodsford TradeBridge (Runner Up)
Best Supply Chain Financier – Greensill Capital (Winner)
Best Alternative Financier – Ebury (Winner), UK Bond Network (Runner Up)
Best Business Finance Provider, Europe – Funding Circle (Winner), Working Capital Partners (Runner Up)
Best Business Finance Provider, Asia – Asian Development Bank (Winner)
Best Business Finance Provider, Australia – Scottish Pacific (Winner)
Best Business Finance Provider, North America – BlueVine (Winner)
Best Business Finance Provider, South America – BBVA (Winner)
Best Freight Forwarder – Universal Cargo (Winner)
Best Trade Finance Recruiter – Johnson Associates (Winner)
Best Foreign Exchange Provider – Smart Currency Business (Winner)
Innovator in Global Trade – TradeIX (Winner)
Disruptor in Mobile Banking – ipagoo (Winner), Atom (Runner Up)
