GAMEN S.A.
How a transaction is structured
The same path for a diesel cargo, a solar project or a beef export: understand the scope, identify the parties, fix the structure in writing, and only then move goods or money.
The process
- 01
Scope
An initial conversation to understand what is intended, at what volume, on what timeline and with what resources. It serves as much to size the transaction as to decline it: if the business is not viable, or not for GAMEN, that is said at this stage and not later.
- 02
Identification and mandate
Full identification of the parties — company, ultimate beneficial owners, activity — before any firm commercial discussion. Once settled, a written mandate defines scope, term, exclusivity if any, and how and when GAMEN is paid.
- 03
Structure
A structure memo, ahead of moving any goods or money, setting out contract and governing law, specification and tolerances, Incoterm, payment instrument and issuing bank, independent inspection, insurance, timelines and penalties. If the instrument cannot actually be issued, it becomes clear at this point.
- 04
Execution and collection
Shipment, quantity and quality inspection, issuance and control of documentation, bank presentation and follow-through to settlement. Most letter-of-credit rejections are document errors: they are reviewed before presentation.
The goods
- Origin Refinery, trading house or terminal, with an agreed quality specification.
- Loading and freight Chartered barge, loading window and independent quantity inspection.
- Discharge Licensed terminal, quality control on arrival and storage.
- Clearance Customs, duties and delivery to the buyer at the agreed point.
Documents and money
- Contract Governing law, Incoterm, tolerances, deadlines and penalties in writing.
- Issuance The buyer's bank issues the instrument; the seller's bank advises or confirms it.
- Presentation Bill of lading, invoice, certificates and inspection, checked before presentation.
- Payment The bank pays against a compliant presentation, not against arrival of the goods.
GAMEN holds both lanes at once: coordinating origin, freight and inspection on one side, and on the other making sure the documents say exactly what the instrument requires.
A documentary discrepancy — not a late vessel — is the most common reason a payment fails. That is why both lanes are planned together, from the start.
Payment and security instruments
Which one applies depends on the risk each party is prepared to take and on what its bank is prepared to issue. None of them is chosen out of habit.
Documentary letter of credit
Governing rules UCP 600
The buyer's bank undertakes to pay the seller against a compliant presentation of shipping documents. It is a means of payment, not a guarantee: the seller is paid because it shipped and documented correctly, not because the buyer defaulted. A second bank may confirm it when issuer or country risk is not acceptable to the seller.
Standby letter of credit
Governing rules ISP98 / UCP 600
It works the other way round: it is drawn only if the obligated party fails to perform. It is used to backstop continuous supply or a deferred payment obligation, and sits alongside the transaction without being the routine collection channel.
Demand guarantee
Governing rules URDG 758
It secures performance of an obligation — bid, advance payment, contract performance — and is paid against the beneficiary's compliant demand. Standard in tenders and construction contracts.
Documentary collection
Governing rules URC 522
Banks handle the documents against payment or against acceptance, without undertaking to pay. It costs considerably less than a letter of credit and protects considerably less: reasonable between parties with a track record, not for a first transaction.
Compliance
None of the above matters if the transaction cannot clear a first-tier bank's controls. Compliance work is not a later formality: it determines which transactions are accepted at all.
- Identification of the company, its ultimate beneficial owners and its activity before advancing any transaction.
- Screening of parties, vessels and jurisdictions involved against international sanctions lists.
- Documented source of funds and of goods, with full traceability of the shipment.
- Work with named banks, customs brokers, inspectors and professional firms, each answering for its own sign-off.
What we do not do
Four explicit limits, because in this market the absence of a clear position is read — rightly — as a red flag.
We do not sell, lease or "monetise" financial instruments
A letter of credit, a standby or a guarantee is issued by a bank at the request of its own client, inside a transaction with a real contract and real goods. The "SBLC or BG leasing" market offered by cold email does not exist as a legitimate business: it is a fraud with a familiar script.
We charge no advance fees to arrange financing
Fees are set out in writing in the mandate and are charged against results or verifiable transaction milestones. Anyone asking for an upfront payment to "open a line" or "reserve an instrument" is describing advance-fee fraud.
We do not work through mandate-less broker chains
Transactions are done with the owner of the goods or capital, or with someone holding a written mandate to represent them. The LOI/ICPO/"48-hour procedure" circuits passed among dozens of brokers never reach a shipment.
We do not provide legal, accounting or tax advice
GAMEN structures and coordinates. Opinions are signed by the law and accounting firms involved in each transaction, and the client is free to appoint its own.
How GAMEN is paid
Through a written mandate: a fixed fee for the structuring work, a success fee on the closed transaction, or a combination of both. The arrangement is agreed before work starts and never includes advance payments to arrange financing.