People
2 International
Germany
restructures
World Cup
friendly
Hong Kong
marketing push
Management
reshuffle
Butignole
honoured
ISSUE 31/25 JULY 1994
Rabobank Deutschland is to
intensify its wholesale and
private banking activities in
the German market.
Following indepth examination
of the current organization, a
new corporate and marketing
structure has been developed
based on the operational units
located in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf
and Hamburg. The bank's other
offices, in Munich, Stuttgart and
Hannover, will be closed and the
Berlin operation will be trans-
formed into a rep office.
The German operation was in-
itially based on the acquisition of
a local retail banking network.
Over time, Rabobank Deutsch
land has increasingly focussed
on wholesale business and the
restructuring is a result of its
adjusted strategies and goals.
Target sectors today are the na-
tional food and agribusiness in-
dustry, environmental technol-
ogy companies, the pharmaceut-
ical and cosmetics industry, pa
per processing operations and
retail chains.
The Frankfurt office will con-
centrate on corporate fïnance,
forex and other markets, while
Hamburg will focus on finance
for international food and agri-
trade flows. Dusseldorf will con
tinue to provide support to
Dutch clients active on the Ger
man market (Germany is the
Netherlands, biggest trading
partner) and will take on cash
management products.
When both Belgium and
Holland turned up in the WC
knock-out group F, the bank's
offices in Utrecht and Antwerp
decided that was reason
enough to organize a party for
clients from both sides of the
border.
Ask any football fan in either Hol
land or Belgium and they'11 teil
you that real rivalry exists be-
tween the two national teams, but
it's a neighbourly kind of compe-
titiveness. The gathering of 800
Rabobank clients from the two
countries who were invited to
watch the game on a giant screen
at the Royal Football Stadium in
Antwerp couldn't have agreed
more. Sporting either red or
orange caps and shirts to show
preference for Belgium's 'Red
Devils' or the Dutch national
eleven, the supporters were in
noisy good cheer, especially when
the whistle blew at 1 -0 for the Bel-
gians. Both teams were ultimately
knocked out of the competition,
'but', says Antwerp's Ronnie
Noeren: 'judging by the ambience
and from the comments made by
our clients, Rabobank has no
competition when it comes to
world champions in relationship
marketing.'
As part of an intensified
marketing effort, the Hong
Kong branch organized a
trade services seminar.
Head of trade services Sunny
Cheung led the seminar which
attracted some 50 participants
from the branch's clients. 'The
aim was to intensify relations
between the bank and existing
clients,' says Cheung. 'By hosting
the seminar on documentary
credits, we were able to demon-
strate how efficiently we operate,
not only through presentations,
but also by showing clients
around the office itself. They
could actually see us at work and
I think they were very impres-
sed.'
Sao Paolo-based private banker
Pedro Butignole has been made
a Comendador da Ordem do Rio
Branco. The order, which is
awarded by the President of
Brazil, was given to Butignole for
his distinguished services to
philanthropic causes at a special
ceremony at the Palacio do
Itamaraty in the country's capital
of Brasilia.
The new comendador -
Butignole (left) receives his
order from Brazilian
foreign minister Amorin.
A number of changes to top man
agement at international offices
have been announced.
Hong-Kong's GM Henk Adams
is bound for Poland where he
will set up the bank's newest oper
ation in the fast-developing East-
ern-European region. His new
assignment becomes effective of-
fkially on 1 October. Sjouke
Postma, who was appointed GM
Greater China last year, will
again take on the top position in
Hong Kong supported by re-
cently posted Roelf Hagoort.
Indonesia Following the discon-
tinuation of the rep office in Jaka-
ta, Henk Danser will be return-
ing to the Netherlands to take up
a new position in Utrecht.
North America/Singapore New
York's deputy general manager
credit and marketing Hans Han-
naart will move to the Singapore
office as general manager from
October 1. He takes over from
Willem van Lynden van Keppel
who was posted to Singapore for
a two-year period. Van Lynden
will be returning to Utrecht.
London/North America Ot
Quast says goodbye to the Lon-
don branch for a new job in New
York - but not before carrying
off an MBA from the British
capital's City University Business
School. His majors - banking
and finance - should prove use-
ful as he takes up the position of
vice president of the Big Apple's
Commodity and Trade Finance
team on August 1.
