Capital & commodities,
where they’re hardest to reach.
For sovereigns, governments and the enterprises that move with them — a boutique advisory and intermediation firm working where access is the hardest part.
Counsel where capital is hard to come by — for sovereigns, state-owned enterprises, the houses that finance them, and emerging-market growth-capital situations in between.
Surety is the deliverable.
A house built for
complex mandates.
We act for four constituencies: sovereigns and their debt managers; state-owned enterprises raising capital or structuring offtake; the corporates and MENA family groups that finance trade with them; and emerging-market growth-capital situations where independent counsel is scarce.
Coverage spans Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Every mandate is led by a partner — independent, conflict-free, and small by design.
About the Firm →
Where the firm has executed.
Jurisdictions in which Hen Street or its partners have led mandates. The list is indicative; current engagements are disclosed only under bilateral confidentiality.
Nigeria · Côte d'Ivoire · Ghana · Senegal · Egypt · Morocco · Kenya · Angola · DRC · Mozambique · South Africa · Ethiopia.
United Arab Emirates · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · Oman · Bahrain.
Brazil · Colombia · Peru · Dominican Republic · Panama.
Four disciplines.
Each anchored in bankable structure and disciplined counterparty diligence. Together: what an EM sovereign, a sovereign-owned enterprise, or a corporate counterparty needs from an independent advisor.
Sovereign Debt Advisory
Independent counsel on primary issuance, liability management and restructuring for sovereign issuers.
- Eurobond, sukuk and local-currency programmes.
- Exchange offers, consent solicitations, buy-backs, switch tenders.
- Bilateral, Paris Club, London Club and bondholder restructurings.
- Conflict-free counsel where banking relationships are constrained.
Commodities
Origination, offtake and credit-wrapped distribution for sovereign and corporate flows.
- Hydrocarbons, refined products, soft commodities, industrial materials.
- Strategic-reserve, food-security and energy-security offtake.
- Insurance cover, fund risk-takers, ECA-backed credit wraps.
- Architecture from term sheet to drawdown.
Defence & Strategic Industries
Procurement, sourcing and programme financing for sovereign defence and dual-use mandates.
- Programme-level procurement for sovereign and dual-use mandates.
- OEM and approved-distributor supplier identification.
- ECA-backed, G2G, tied and untied credit lines.
- Engagement under end-user, export-licence and sanctions diligence.
Trade Finance & Receivables
Documentary credit, structured receivables and ECA-backed buyer and supplier credits for African and emerging-market flows.
- Letters of credit, standby LCs, deferred-payment LCs.
- Sovereign-backed and corporate receivables, with or without recourse.
- Pre-export, prepayment, borrowing-base and tolling structures.
- Buyer and supplier credits across UK, European and Asian ECAs.
Insights.
The arithmetic of a 155mm round: from cotton field to artillery shell
European propellant capacity does not scale linearly with shell capacity. Anyone proposing to fund the latter without budgeting for the former is asking the bank to lend against an assumption that has already failed once.
The 2026 Eurobond window: what the first prints tell you about preparation
15 APR 2026Trade Finance & ReceivablesThe correspondent banking retreat from Africa
18 MAR 2026CommoditiesCredit-wrapped distribution: a primer for African corporate flows
30 MAR 2026Trade Finance & ReceivablesThe ECOWAS4 trade finance gap, country by country
22 MAR 2026Trade Finance & ReceivablesThe EU-Africa trade corridor: €370bn of flow, $81bn of unmet finance
29 APR 2026Defence & Strategic IndustriesProgramme financing for the EU defence industrial base: what banks need to lend
08 APR 2026Trade Finance & ReceivablesEURC and the CFA franc zone: a euro-pegged settlement rail for Francophone Africa
10 MAY 2026Defence & Strategic IndustriesEurope's cotton-linter problem and the 155mm production target
22 APR 2026Defence & Strategic IndustriesNSPA, the ammunition support partnership, and the path from concept to bankable project
16 JUN 2026Defence & Strategic IndustriesThe gatekeepers turned out to be national: promotional banks and European defence lending
18 AUG 2026Sovereign Debt AdvisorySenegal's third way: reprofiling when restructuring is the obvious answer
12 APR 2026Sovereign Debt AdvisorySovereign liability management: the 2026 African calendar
02 MAY 2026Trade Finance & ReceivablesStablecoins as African trade infrastructure: B2B, not retail
26 MAY 2026Trade Finance & ReceivablesRetiring the $81.8 billion figure: what the revised trade finance gap data says
08 JUL 2026CommoditiesOfftake instead of ownership: the Washington Accord and the bankability of resource-for-security
07 MAY 2026Trade Finance & ReceivablesWhy African trade finance is broken
Speak with
a partner.
Mandates are accepted only where end-user, export-licence and sanctions diligence is satisfied. All correspondence is held in confidence.