ITFA – Introducing the Conference Speakers in Dubai – Simon Cook

Another week…another exciting speaker.

Indeed our Annual Conference is fast approaching and we hope that you are currently making all the necessary arrangements to be present for yet another well attended and successful ITFA event.  To register for the Conference on-line, please click here. It is with pleasure that we introduce, Mr. Simon Cook, who in last year’s ITFA Conference in Barcelona addressed the Legal and Regulatory issues in the Trade and Forfaiting market in Africa. This year, in Dubai Simon will be discussing Commodity Repos; what they are, how to structure them and more importantly how to avoid the pitfalls.

‘’Simon takes a look at commodity repos in light of the Citibank v Mercuria decision. The presentation will cover how commodity repos work, how they can be structured to deal with the risks, what is required for there to be a true sale, recharacterisation risk and an analysis of the Mercuria case and its effect on commodity repos.”

Simon is a partner in the Trade & Export Finance Group in Sullivan & Worcester’s London office. He has experience in a wide variety of banking and finance transactions, including in particular in relation to trade finance, structured trade finance, project finance, invoice discounting facilities and borrowing-base facilities in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the CIS. His work in the structured trade area covers a range of pre-export and prepayment financings acting for both lenders and borrowers notably in oil, telecoms, soft commodities and metals sectors with particular experience in Africa and the Middle East.

On the trade finance side Simon has advised international banks on various financial instruments and related issues including documentary credit issues, including UCP 500 and UCP 600, promissory notes, letters of credit and risk exposure under trade finance instruments. He was also involved in the preparation of the ITFA’s Secondary Market Guidelines and Primary Market Guide as well as the Uniform Rules on Forfaiting.

Simon has worked and travelled extensively in Africa and the Middle East and spent over three and a half years living and working in Dubai. He has participated in a number of trade finance, structured trade finance and project finance conferences and seminars throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including speaking at ITFA conferences and at conferences on PPP in South Africa; on project finance and structured trade finance at Afrexim’s annual structured finance conferences in Cairo, Ghana and South Africa; and at structured trade finance seminars and general finance in London, New York, Paris, Moscow, Lisbon, Geneva, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt and Dubai.

The wealth of expertise of our speakers paired with the extremely varied subject matter will make the ITFA Conference one to remember. We look forward to seeing you in Dubai.