Feature: The Youth Guard

A New Generation of Trade Financiers

Duarte Pedreira is currently a director at the emerging markets trade and commodity finance advisory boutique, Caspian Sea Capital – “CSC”. Duarte’s trade finance experience began with a Portuguese bank in London, where he spent most of his time as a trader, working side-by-side with some of the forfaiting market’s best known professionals, originating and trading not only traditional forfaiting market products, but also syndicated and bilateral loans. 

Duarte then spent two years in Luanda with the newly established Standard Bank Angola, initially as head of trade finance and later as head of transactional products and services, following which he was invited to work in the Standard Bank Group’s head office as head of trade finance sales for Africa. In April 2013 he returned to London and joined CSC with the mission of providing customised trade and commodity finance solutions and specific know-how to clients in jurisdictions less explored by mainstream international banks.

At CSC, Duarte is responsible for advising both financial institutions and corporate clients on structuring and placing trade and commodity finance. Although he is primarily based in London, Duarte travels extensively to countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Angola, and South Africa, amongst other emerging markets. 

“The greatest challenge in financing frontier emerging markets is still the prevailing information and knowledge asymmetries between borrowers and lenders”, he says, “and it is our role to bridge those gaps by studying those markets’ legal, regulatory and business environments to the greatest extent possible, enabling financing structures that make sense both to our clients and to the liquidity providers which have the risk appetite to fund them.” 

CSC’s commitment to delivering high quality financing advisory solutions to its clients is further enhanced by having Tom Hoffman as its Chairman. Tom is one of the City’s most seasoned and best known bankers, with more than 40 years’ experience in investment banking and international banking. Tom is also a Member of the Council of the City of London and its Finance Committee and its Financial Investment Board.