Strategie Meeting
Sweet deal
CAM Update
Rabobank joins
Dutch state visit
to Turkey
Agri-project
finance team
start up in
South-East Asia
Issue 17/May 24,1993
Last month, the full com
plement of strategie alliance
liaison officers met in Utrecht
to fine-tune cooperation and
work on further expansion of
the opportunities offered by
the European network of stra-
tegic-alliance partners.
Strategie alliances have be-
come an integral part of Rabo-
bank's philosophy forthe devel-
opment of cliënt services
throughout Europe. In each of
the alliance countries, a liaison
officer has been appointed to
ensure cooperation is optimiz-
ed, to further expand the op-
tions open to Rabo-clients there
and, of course, vice versa. As
part of ongoing efforts to
continually expand those ser
vices and to fine-tune cooper-
The bank's agri-project fi-
nancing team has obtained the
mandate for putting together a
US$ 50 million financing fac-
ility for IANSA, Chile's national
sugar company.
'Rabobank will be taking US$
15 million and try to syndicate
the other US$ 35 million,' say
Niek Streefkerk and Gordon
Butland who were instrumental
in putting together the financial
analysis and financing propo-
sal. In the bank's view, IANSA is
one of the most important agri-
businesses in Chile. Besides
its sugar interests, it is involved
in apple-juice concentrates,
tomato paste, fish feed and
agricultural implements, such
as fertilizer and agricultural
equipment.
At the Coordinating Ac
count Management (CAM)
team conference in Febru-
ary this year, a number of
aims were defined and for-
mulated for developing a co-
ordinated worldwide ap-
proach to the bank's large
corporate clients. Deadlines
were established for a num
ber of essential steps - and
the CAM teams are right on
target.
Over 90 percent of the defined
CAM teams have already been
formed and are now working on
the Relationship Development
Plan which, after approval, will
be presented to their clients.
The CAM teams comprise the
ation, the liaison officers from
all over Europe came together
with their counterparts at
Utrecht last month.
The aims of the one-day work
shop were product develop-
'The team department here
did all of research on
IANSA,'Streefkerk continues,
'and we were very surprised
when we discovered Chile is ac-
tually the most efficiënt beet-
sugar producer in the world.
The main reason is the rela-
tively high erop yield, but also
the long growing season in Chile
which mean that processing
plants can operate for twice as
long as in Europe. IANSA sugar
processing is fed by around
12,000 sugar farmers from the
central area of this elongated
country.'
He adds, 'We already have a
good relationship with lANSA's
controlling shareholder, Path-
finder Chile, and we see this
new deal as a stepping stone to
further long-term involvement
there.'
client's local coordinating ac
count manager, ACs from other
foreign offices which do busi
ness with the specific customer
and product specialists. The
teams can also call on any
other expertise they need from
the various departments in
Utrecht.
The people responsible for
liaison in Utrecht are Mario
Lutofo and Eric-Jan Verhulst.
Their task is to act as central
point for information and to
ensure the flow of informa
tion around the network is ef-
fective.
[In the February issue, we car-
ried a full-length feature on the
CAM Team concept. If you miss-
ed it, contact us on +31 30
902083 for a copy.]
ment, standardization of pro
cedures and the development
of strategies to build up cus
tomer bases through inten-
sified cooperation between
Utrecht and the bank's offices
Member of the board, F.
Schreve (photo) was invited to
accompany the Dutch prime
minister, Ruud Lubbers, on his
official visit to Turkey on May
17 to 19.
Schreve was part of the so-call-
ed Parallel Economie Mission
which is increasingly a regular
feature of state visits. 'The
idea,' says Guus Rozendaal, the
senior area manager responsi
ble for Turkey, 'is to further im-
and strategie alliance partners
around Europe.
'Andre Bar, the liaison officer
for Crédit Agricole, one of Rabo-
bank's oldest alliance partners,
presented a strategie action
plan as basis for discussion.
The notion behind the plan was to
generate new ideas on the best
and most efficiënt ways to ap-
proach our aims,' says UK-liaison
officer Brigitta van Kanten.
'Now we have laid the basis of
a standardized approach, we
can all push on with implement-
ing the concepts produced at
the meeting. But one point I
feel should be emphasized con
tinually and which we should all
keep in mind is the essential
need for close cooperation be
tween Utrecht, the strategie al
liance partners and the foreign
offices.
prove relations between speci
fic countries. Levels of Dutch-
Turkish trade are increasing,
and Rabobank has quite a sub-
stantial volume of business the
re already, even though we have
no physical presence in Turkey.'
During their stay, Schreve and
Rozendaal met with some of the
Turkisch financial instituations
and agribusiness clients with
whom the bank has longstan-
ding relationships. 'Some of the
meetings were at formal events,
but we also paid a number of
courtesy calls,' says Rozendaal.
'This kind of visit is very useful
for stengthening ties.'
From August 1, two mem-
bers of the Utrecht - based agri-
project finance team will begin
operating from the Singapore
office to service clients in
South-East Asia.
The new two-man team, Ben
Huiskamp and Patrick Guyver,
will provide the full range of
APFT services, wich includes
feasibility studies for the agri
business sector, financial engin
eering and agri-project financ
ing.
