Global Origination

“Vision — Premier Global Structured Finance House”

Our activities in the Global Origination Business Unit aim to reinforce successes in both the sectoral and product coverage areas, and to move us towards creating a single global origination franchise. By putting in place the right balance of product capability, industry expertise and local knowledge, we aim to increase our capacity to execute deals in line with our international clients’ requirements.

Global Origination deals with client coverage and with originating, structuring and executing transactions across a number of different sectors.

This area is organised into the following industry sectors:

Media, Entertainment and Telecoms

WestLB is re-establishing itself as one of the leading players in this sector with a team of 16 executives in London covering the EMEA region and a further three based in Asia. We are a provider of project, structured, leveraged and corporate finance solutions to our clients (corporates and financial sponsors) in these regions. In the telecoms field we cover mobile, cable, fixed line, satellite and tower operators. In media, we principally cover companies in the broadcasting and publishing segments. Companies in this area require significant amounts of capital either to roll-out new networks, refinance existing debt facilities or to acquire other assets or businesses. Convergence and consolidation is driving significant M&A/LBO activity. Our focus is on originating, structuring and distributing debt financing packages for our clients in this area, with our product capabilities including senior debt, mezzanine, high yield, private placements, derivatives, structured tax products and advice on capital structure.

Diversified Industries

The Diversified Industries sector focuses most heavily on acquisition and event driven financings for corporations in three segments: Durable Goods Manufacturing, including pulp/paper; Consumer (food beverages, leisure/gaming/pubs, consumer products, retail) and Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare. The group has assembled a team of modelers and structures who advise clients on optimal financing structures, with an emphasis on “stretch credit” or select leveraged financings.

Energy, incorporating the Oil and Gas, Power and Utility sectors

WestLB has a successful and established presence in the Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa Oil and Gas, Power and Utility sector. Experienced sector bankers, based in London and Düsseldorf as well as the Gulf region and various European capitals, work together as one client focussed team. We are a provider and lead arranger of project, structured and corporate finance solutions to our clients.

In the Oil and Gas field we cover liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction, transportation and regasification projects, refineries, petrochemical plants, oilfield services as well as long distance gas pipelines. Our focus is on risk and capital structure evaluation, debt structuring and arrangement, technical and financial modelling, interest rate hedging and contractual negotiations. In the Power and Utilities field our customers are major industry players, project sponsors and equity/mezzanine investor funds in the Power and Utilities segment.

WestLB is recognised as a market leader in the field of Project Finance with "Global Finance" magazine naming WestLB the "Best Global Power Bank", and the Infrastructure Journal naming us the “Power Arranger of the Year”.

Metals and Mining

Synchronised recovery of world economies and a lack of exploration investment have produced a supply deficit of most major mineral commodities, and a current boom in commodity prices. In order to bring new mineral projects on-stream, many smaller companies – in particular – will seek debt finance, provided on a highly structured basis. The Metals and Mining team is a leading global arranger of such transactions, often focused on the emerging markets where many new mining assets are located. The team structured and arranged the European Mining Deal of 2003 for the Amantaytau Gold Mine in Uzbekistan, the African Mining Deal of 2004 for the Kansanshi Copper Mine in Zambia, and has recently closed the Kwale project financing for the first-ever mining project in Kenya.

Infrastructure (covering businesses such as hospitals and transportation)

Infrastructure finance includes acquisition and project finance and covers sectors like transportation and social infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals. WestLB has played a major role in all the major recent transportation transactions, such as the acquisition of BAA and many other European airports (including Brussels, Rome, Budapest), the recapitalisation of Tank & Rast (the operator of all German motorway service stations), the privatisation of the French roads in 2006, the project financing of the M5 motorway in Hungary and of Cyprus airport. WestLB’s clients include all the main equity investors in the infrastructure market.

Asset Securitisation

The main focus of the Asset Securisation team is to develop trusted advisor status with key clients in targeted sectors, enabling WestLB to deliver bespoke value added solutions based upon a detailed knowledge and understanding of our clients’ needs, including warehouse finance and term Asset Backed Securisation (ABS) for traditional as well as emerging and esoteric asset classes.

Financial Institutions

The main objective of the globally operating Financial Institutions Group (FI) is to originate and facilitate high value business with clients by providing innovative and customised value-added solutions to the challenges they face. They seek to originate high risk-adjusted return transactions and, by cross-selling WestCap products, to create opportunities for other areas of the Bank. The key products for FI are structured finance, asset-backed securities (ABS), structured credit products and treasury/financing products.

Loan and Bond Syndication

The Loan and Bond Syndication area is responsible for underwriting all the primary market debt transactions which the Bank is leading. It operates across all sectors of the Bank’s expertise for senior and junior debt products, with other responsibilities including High Yield bond products and sales responsibilities for syndicated loans.

The loan team has recognised expertise in Emerging and Central European, Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East/African markets, which complements a strong domestic German business. Also, we are often a leading bank on innovative structured debt solutions for clients.

Whilst not a volume player, we are regularly amongst the top 20 banks in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Syndicated Euroloan market and have a targeted, but successful, bond franchise in these markets as well.

The team is based in London, Düsseldorf, New York, Hong Kong and Sydney.