New General Manager
International Division:
Accent on Europe and profit
band
Things are going well with Rabobank abroad. There recently ap-
peared an article in 'de Telegraaf,' the largest Dutch newspaper,
in which the international activities of Rabobank were compared
with those of three other Dutch banks. The article was generous
in its compliments for Rabobank. 'Five years ago Rabobank would
not even have been mentioned in such a comparison,' says Rik
van Slingelandt, the new General Manager of the International
Division. 'Thanks to its international activities, Rabobank can
now claim a place with the others. This illustrates what has been
achieved in the previous ten years. In particular it was Henk
Visser, my predecessor, who took the lead in this respect,
^omeone like myseif, coming from outside, can say that. Now for
ine next ten years. I hope that they wili be just as spectacular.'
Issue 4/September 22, 1989
fidUU
we set it up ourselves, look for a takeover
or work together with another bank has yet
to be decided. In Germany, ADCA-bank is
being remodelled into a Rabobank. There
is a Dutchman present at every office now.
Switzerland and Luxembourg must become
involved to a continually greater degree
with investment management. In these
countries we are not an agribank anymore
but one aiming at funding, one of the three
central pillars of our international policy.
Greece and Scandinavia are also on our
list but do not have priority. We are look
ing, rather, at Turkey and Egypt where we
have a lot of business. Turkey is a large
exporter of agricultural products, in particu
lar grains. And our customers export a lot
to Turkey. We are also turning our thoughts
to the Soviet Union. Should perestroika
continue, then we wili certainly be doing
business with the Eastern Bloc.' The
choice of a country is always prompted by
agricultural production and product flows
to and from Europe.
Further expansion The offices outside
Europe wili be expanded further. Says Van
Slingelandt: 'All offices must show greater
productivity. They are all profitable. They all
contribute to the Group result but earnings
Rik van Slingelandt (43) studied econ-
omics. He worked with the Neder
landse Investeringsbank (Nether-
lands Investment Bank) at The Hague and
then at the RSV shipbuilding yard. He was
posted to Brazil for three years by RSV.
After returning to the Netherlands he was
employed at the Rodamco investment fund.
Since February 1 he has been employed at
Rabobank, first as Deputy General Manager
and, since July 1, as General Manager In
ternational Division.
Future plans Says Van Slingelandt:
'Our foreign-based offices are still young. A
lot of new activities have yet to be stimu-
lated. The offices that we have must reach
greater maturity. And we must remodel the
representative offices that we have into
Hl-dressed Branches. A representative of-
e does not make any money. It only
costs money and one continually has to
say 'no' to customers. That is frustrating,
both for the representative and for the
member bank and its customers. You can't
really offer much more than good advice.'
One of the ways of allowing a representa
tive office to offer financial services is by
seeking a co-operation agreement with a
locally established bank.
Says Van Slingelandt: 'We are looking
for just such a co-operation agreement in
Spain at the moment. We can then start
working there with our own commercial im
age. This we already do in Argentina,
Uruguay and Chile. We work there with a
small Uruguayan bank cailed Surlnvest.
Surlnvest is very well established in
agribusiness. That is interesting for both
our customers in the Netherlands and
those in South America who export to
Europe. Latin America is a difficult part of
the world. The governments are bankrupt
but the business community flourishes.
Particularly the exporting agricultural in-
dustry.' A number of loans provided by
Rabobank to the state of Brazil are being
converted into capital participations. The
first has already been realized in a chicken
slaughterhouse. 'This wili yield us signifi-
cantly more money than simply holding on
to the loan. You then have to wait and see
if this is ever repaid,' explains Van Slinge
landt.
Satisfied with USA The USA is typi-
cally a country where we are right on target
with agribusiness', says Van Slingelandt.
'Everything is going exceptionally well with
New York. There we are where we want to
be. Well-spread over different agricultural
activities such as stockbreeding, com-
pound feed, grain trade etc. At the end of
this month the loan production office in
San Francisco opens. For the time being
there are no more offices planned in the
USA. We are, though, going to take a look
at Canada. It was always difficult to get a
banking permit there but there has now
been a change in relevant legislation.'
The Far East 'Asia is a difficult part of
the world for us', says Van Slingelandt.
The Chinese take a long time before they
start trusting a bank, and it takes us some
time to understand the Chinese way of life.
But once that trust has been established,
it is a life-time relationship. It calls for a lot
of patience. Our activities in the Far East
are only 25% in agribusiness. This must in-
crease. From Singapore we must serve
Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines as
well.
A representative office of the bank in
Sydney wili soon be opened. Trade flows
there are mostly financed now by
Japanese or Australian banks. Says Van
Slingelandt: 'With our expertise we should
be able to take a slice of the market.'
Accent on Europe The emphasis in in
ternational policy in the next few years wili
be on Europe. 'Our aim is to have a pres-
ence in some form or other in every EC
country in 1992', says Van Slingelandt. We
are in the process of researching what our
profile should be in France. What is certain
is that it wili be a banking unit. Whether
Van Slingelandt: 'In 1992 we wili be represented
in every EC country.
must increase. In the starting-up period
costs exceed profits, that is a fact. It
takes three to five years before you have
any positive result. And this is before I
start talking about real profits. Here you
have the second area of concentration for
abroad. The first is Europe, the second is
profit.'
Competition through foreign-based of
fices Van Slingelandt emphasizes once
again how important it is that the local
banks make use of the international net-
work. This they should do, amongst other
things, to keep their own customers. 'More
and more we are noticing that Rabobanks
in the Netherlands experience competition
from foreign Branches of other Dutch
banks. If, for example, we do not offer ser
vices in Spain, customers go to another
bank. That bank then arranges for all bank
ing business to go through their own office
in the Netherlands and, thus, no longer via
Rabobank. We want to eliminate this risk.
We do not want to lose our customers in
this way. The local banks know that we
have an international network. Therefore,
they can use it.'
