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The Vinmar Group, a global family of companies that includes Vinmar International, announced Aug. 14 the launch of a new company, Vinmar Finance, designed to identify and facilitate international trade opportunities. Thomas Wells has been appointed managing director of the newly formed company. Vinmar Finance was conceived to facilitate cross-border trade transactions after recognizing that the shortage of available capital was a limiting factor in pursuing new trade opportunities. "We believe the services offered by Vinmar Finance will be enthusiastically received by the global marketplace," said Vijay Goradia, chairman of The Vinmar Group. "Tom's experience in international banking and structured trade is uniquely suited to head this new venture." Wells was most recently a partner with The Structured Trade Group, a firm specializing in trade finance and credit and political risk insurance. Prior to that, Wells supported the trade finance activities of First Interstate Bank after more than 12 years with First City Bank where his responsibilities included managing the bank's Singapore Branch and International Division. "There are many American companies that could dramatically increase their export sales if they could identify financial institutions willing to take prudent cross- border risk," said Thomas Wells, managing director of Vinmar Finance. "Commercial banks often avoid certain types of trade finance risk and prefer to work only with established relationships. Vinmar Finance hopes to help bridge that gap by leveraging its expertise and capital to provide exporters with more trade finance flexibility." (For more information, visit www.vinmar.com.)