Bassett & Walker wins second HSBC Leadership in International Trade in Latin America Award

Toronto, October 24, 2012 — Bassett & Walker International, Inc. (BWI) has won the second annual HSBC Leadership in International Trade in Latin America Award.

The HSBC International Business Awards program honours Canadian companies that have successfully branched out beyond our borders.

“Latin America is expected to play home to one of the world’s largest economies by 2050, and the world is paying attention” said Linda Seymour, Executive Vice President, Head of Commercial Banking and Regional President, Central and Eastern Canada, HSBC Bank Canada. “Companies such as Bassett & Walker have successfully navigated the region’s occasionally choppy waters and are very deserving of this award.”

Bassett & Walker CEO, Nicholas Walker, credits deep and diversified client relationships and the use of its proprietary, cloud based, trading system, ‘OTS’, with the company’s ability to achieve early success in this segment. Nicholas Walker said, “BWI’s commitment to our global clientele in more than 55 countries, and the use of our proprietary, cloud based, trading platform are the true keys to our success. Our investment in OTS, has delivered increased transactions, risk management tools, and better market efficiencies, creating more value to our global clients and stakeholders. We have better analytical tools than our competitors and we are using big data, and market intelligence, to drive our growth.”

To be eligible, firms must be majority Canadian owned (50.1 percent); must be headquartered in Canada; must generate at least 10 percent of their revenue from activities outside of Canada; and must have minimum sales of CAD $5 million in the last fiscal year. Full eligibility requirements are available on www.bwob.ca/awards. Applications were judged by a committee drawn from Rogers Publishing Ltd, The Globe and Mail and select international business experts. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP performed due diligence on finalists’ entries.

About the HSBC International Business Awards
The HSBC International Business Awards is an important awards program that honour Canadian firms that have successfully brought their products and services to the world. The Awards are bestowed in the following categories: International Business of the Year, Small and Medium Enterprise; International Business of the Year, Large Enterprise; Leadership in International Trade in Asia-Pacific; and Leadership in International Trade in Latin America.

About HSBC Bank Canada
HSBC Bank Canada, a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc, is the leading international bank in Canada. With around 6,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories and assets of US$2,652bn at 30 June 2012, the HSBC Group is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organizations.

About Business without Borders
Canada’s newest and best source of news and information for companies seeking to do business beyond this nation’s borders, Business without Borders was created by Rogers Publishing Limited in association with the Globe and Mail and HSBC Bank Canada. Business without Borders provides news, analysis, tools and inspiring profiles of Canadian businesses exporting, expanding their operations and sales abroad or relocating operations in other countries.

About Bassett & Walker International, Inc. (BWI)
Founded in 1992, Bassett & Walker International, Inc. (BWI) is a global leader in the procurement and sale of agricultural commodities to more than 55 countries. BWI acts as the principal buyer and seller of these goods, buying them from the primary producers and selling them to primary processors around the world, and manages all the risks associated with this trade.