Firm Advises EBI in Financing for Ivorian Cocoa Exporter

Jan. 31, 2025 – Hughes Hubbard advised EBI, a French subsidiary of pan-African banking conglomerate Ecobank, in the negotiation of a commodity financing facility for cocoa producer Kineden Commodities.

The firm helped establish local collateral security agreements subject to the OHADA (Organization for the Harmonization of African Business Law) Uniform Act regulating security interests.

EBI served as lender and arranger in the financing, which closed in September. Kineden will use the proceeds to export cocoa beans from Ivory Coast's 2024-2025 harvest.

Hughes Hubbard previously advised EBI on a similar deal in 2023.

EBI was created in Paris in 2008 as a spearhead for the international development of the Ecobank group. The bank is focused on corporate banking products and services to multinational companies, commodity traders, NGOs and financial institutions involved in business activities in Africa.

Sena Agbayissah and Agnès Braka-Calas worked on the agreement.