About Associated British Ports
Associated British Ports (“ABP”) owns and operates 21 ports in the United Kingdom, managing around 25 per cent of the UK’s sea-borne trade. As a vital part of the supply chains of businesses throughout the UK, the 21 ports support 200,000 jobs and contribute £15 billion to the economy every year, handling £157 billion of trade.
Transaction Overview
In April 2024, Centrus supported ABP with successful restructuring a portfolio of c.£176m swaps, as part of a continued optimisation of the company’s long-term hedging strategy.
The transaction follows on from a similar exercise undertaken in late 2023 for a portfolio of £300m swaps.
Restructuring the hedging portfolio in the elevated rates environment allowed ABP to fully remove a large proportion of swap break provisions at competitive pricing levels, and aligned the hedging portfolio with future funding plans.
Since 2017, Centrus has advised ABP on over £2bn notional of hedging transactions, and we are proud to support ABP as an extension of their treasury team.
Centrus Solution
Centrus advised ABP throughout the process, coordinating a wide ranging RfP process with the company’s bank hedge counterparties. Centrus’ market insight on the products, solutions and counterparties available to ABP helped drive through a successful restructure amidst a backdrop of significant interest rate volatility, providing independent assessment of hedging alternatives and co-ordinating strong support from ABP’s relationship banking group.
“Centrus supported us through a successful swap restructuring in which we are pleased to have achieved our risk management objectives under a continued backdrop of interest rate volatility. Centrus added value in creating a hedging strategy supported by thorough analysis, market expertise and execution support, which all facilitated a smooth transaction process which received strong support from our hedging bank counterparties. As our long-time advisor, we look forward to working with the Centrus team as we continue to optimise our long-term hedging strategy.”
Shaun Kennedy, Group Treasurer at Associated British Ports.
For more information please contact Adrian Li, Managing Director; Ivan McKinlay, Assistant Director; Ewen Alexander, Associate at Centrus.