The rollout of the Caracas metro trains

Of all the major French banks, Paribas was the one whose business volume in major export credits was greater than its business volume in general credits. The Caracas metro, inaugurated in 1983, is one of the leading export credit operations of the bank on rue d’Antin.
In 1978, the bank played a decisive role in the commercial battle that pitted a group of 12 French manufacturers against foreign competitors to win the contract to equip the Caracas metro. It involved supplying 240 wagons, 4500 tonnes of rails and the signalling to the management company of the future metro.

Thanks to the bank’s innovative financing technique, the currency swap, the French industrial group’s offer turned out to be more advantageous for the Venezuelans. In the French offer denominated in French francs, the annual credit increase ceiling was 8% versus 5% for the Japanese offer in dollars. Consequently, Paribas, in collaboration with the Morgan bank, organised the forward purchase of the dollars the Caracas Metro company had to deliver to cover the French credit due dates. This made it possible to apply a 15% discount to the buyer.