About the year 2013, TDB envisioned the formation of a trade finance fund in fulfillment of the provisions of Article 9 of the TDB Charter, which provide for the establishment of a trade financing fund, as a separate entity or otherwise, for the purpose of carrying out the objectives of TDB relating to the financing of trade as set out in Article 4 of the TDB Charter.
TDB then promoted this vision and in due course, TDB selected GML Capital LLP (a limited liability partnership organized and existing under the laws of England and Wales, partnership number 0C326977, and whose headquarters are at The Met Building, 22 Percy Street, London WIT 2BU, England) as TDB’s joint-venture business partner to operationalize the fund manager (ESATAL) for such trade finance fund (ESATF).
Thereafter, ESATAL was established as the fund manager and the parties concluded a shareholders’ agreement with TDB as majority shareholder and GML Capital LLP as minority shareholder.
In August 2019, ESATAL successfully launched the commercial operations of ESATF as its first fund under management.
Following two years of ESATF’s operations, TDB exercised its option rights under the ESATAL shareholders’ agreement to buy out all the shares held by GML Capital LLP in ESATAL effective 30 June 2022, thereby making ESATAL a wholly owned subsidiary of TDB.
Accordingly, the historical performance of ESATF during the period from its commercial launch in August 2019 up to June 2022 reflects the contribution of both TDB and GML Capital LLP as joint venture business partners in ESATAL as fund manager of ESATF.
The Fund, Eastern and Southern African Trade Fund (ESATF), has been established to provide trade financing for exporters and importers domiciled in the Tripartite Region, an emerging economic bloc formed of members from three regional economic communities: the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
The Tripartite Region:
- 27 member countries
- 54% of GDP of the African Continent
- Combined GDP of USD 1.3 trillion
- Combined population of 683 million
- 58% of the population of the African Continent