Sowing seeds for the future Holland in Brief Staff communication magazine for the Rabö Interim results New structure for international treasuries Looking ahead Important note for your diary: Rabobanks in billions Benelux commemorated Mortgage choice Best bank award ISSUE 33/19 SEPTEMBER 1994 At the first of a series of 'business evenings', Rabobank launched its extensive report on The World Seed Market before signing a sponsorship agreement for the Féderation International du Commerce de Semence (international seed trade federation - FIS) global congress in 1996. Afj Mid-year results published at the end of August show healthy growth for the Rabo bank organization as a whole. Pre-tax profit grew 12.2 per cent to NLG 994 (886) million against the same period last year, and net profit increased by 11.4 (7.9) percent. Measures to reduce costs have already proved effective, with expenses rising by only 3.6 percent. Over the past few months, a new structure has been intro- duced into the operations of treasuries in the international offices. See page 3. September: Milan is officially upgraded to branch status. September 15: The World Grain Market report is published. October: Intermopro, the inter national dairy fair held in Dusseldorf, Germany, is co- sponsored by Rabobank. October 4: The bank focuses on the Middle East in the 'country day' program. October 18: The Shanghai repre- sentative office opens officially. October 27: A US 'country day' is hosted in Utrecht. November: Dublin is added to the international network, and Popular Rabobank opens officially. September 22: A video pres- entation on the 'As good as the best' drive will be shown at all foreign offices on or around this date. The presen- tation is a repüca of a similar event to be held that evening for CBS staff in Utrecht. Ple- ase try to attend as it compri- ses important information on the bank's future. The bank's agri-research team has built up a growing repu- tation for the excellence and in- sight of their world studies on food and agribusiness sectors. The success of these reports has now led to a new approach in presenting them to important players in the field concerned. The first of these so-called 'busi ness evenings' on the seed sector brought together top managers ffom the industry with the aim of opening up a dialogue not only on the sector concerned, but also on Rabobank's role as global food and agribusiness bank. Like all the studies in this series, The World Seed Market is a comprehensive overview of the sector, including structure, con- centration, world consumption, production, as well as possible future strategies for the industry. The propogation of seeds is a highly technical and capital in tensive business, and this aspect of the sector is also covered at length by the report. 'For bank ers,' said Cor Broekhuyse, 'the 3 h seed business is a very difficult one because the value of stock is hard to determine. A company may look a less viable prop- osition because it has invested heavily in new strains, or alter- natively, look very good because it has not put a lot into R&D recently. These are just a couple of the factors that mean real knowledge of the sector is essen- tial for bankers.' Clearly, the message to the industry is that Rabobank not only understands the sector's needs and can evalu- ate its performance, it also has the financial strength to support those needs. The seed business evening prov ed an ideal opportunity to emp- hasize Rabobank's commitment to the industry as Henk Gentis and Broekhuyse formally signed an agreement on behalf of the bank with FIS to pro vide major sponsoring for its next biannual congress. This international event will be held in Amsterdam in June 1996 and the organizers expect over 1,500 participants. According to July statistics, eight member Rabobanks have a balance total of over NLG 1 bil- lion (around half a billion US dollars). The three largest banks are located in Midden-Westland (NLG 1.469 billion), Sluis-ljzen- dijke (1.456) and Amsterdam (1.444). The member bank in Appeltern is the smallest of the total 650 local Rabobanks and has a balance total of NLG 21.3 million. On September 5, the Dutch Mint issued the first Benelux NLG 10 piece to mark the 50th anniver- sary of the economie treaty sign ed by the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg in London in 1944. The Benelux Treaty effec- tively removed trade barriers be- tween the three countries and is often considered a model for the recent European Union elimin- ation of borders between mem ber states. Both Belgium and Luxembourg will also be issuing commemorative coins worth 250 Franks. Rabobank continues to domi- nate the domestic residential mortgage market. Recent figures show its mortgages are still the most popular and competitive in the Netherlands, with the ING Group holding second place in the rankings. The authoritative financial magazine Euromoney has voted Rabobank The Best Bank in the Netherlands.

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blad 'Raboband International' (EN) | 1994 | | pagina 1