...BUILDING THE NETWORK
II
WHAT'S NewS Issue 3 June/July 1995
-( international
5
i Lumpur, Bangkok, Warsaw - it seems as if
>ening of a new Rabobank international oper-
i network has grown by leaps and bounds.
rer 1,300 staff world-wide and generating
t total. But what is the strategy behind the
ead of international, Hanno Riedlin, talks us
at potential locations for further expansion.
our people have been working these mar
kets for some time. If you look at Mexico,
•vhich opened officially in May, you'11 find
rits Mönking has been there for over 18
months. He has already paved the way for
our operations, setting up contacts and
doing deals. With the exception of, say,
Atlanta, the same applies to most of the
offices we'11 be "opening" this year.'
THINKING AND DOING
However, if new Rabo-flags are analyzed,
there is a clear focus on markets in both
Latin America and the Far East in recent
years. Is the bank thinking increasingly
about expansion in these semi-emerged mar
kets? 'We're not only thinking, we're also
doing,' says Riedlin. 'I don't need to teil you
how interesting the People's Republic of
China is. We already have a presence in
Shanghai, but we're looking very closely at
ways of increasing our activities there. The
^n'\t possible places in this rapidly growing
region are Vietnam and India.' Moving west-
wards, Riedlin says the bank is examining
opportuinites 'with more urgency' in South
ern Africa. 'That probably equates with
South Africa,' he adds, 'but not exclusively.'
FLESHING OUT LATIN AMERICA
At present, the bank has four operations
in Central and South America. Again, econ
omie prospects are promising in these re-
gions, but according to Riedlin the main
focus now is fleshing out current activities
before moving into new countries. 'Sao
Paulo will be upgraded - it is still only a
representative office. And we will be in
creasing our activities in Chile, Argentina
and Mexico. You've probably heard we
will also be opening a new office in
Atlanta. This brings our current US
presence up to five locations alongside
New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Fran-
cisco. But we definitely need to do more
on the west coast which plays a major role
in Pacific Rim trade finance.'
LOOKING EAST
The bank has moved very cautiously into
Central and Eastern Europe, opening only
two offices to date. 'But we are reevalu-
ating our activities there,' says Riedlin.
'We've been in Hungary now for some
years and there are various ways of upgrad
ing this operation into a licenced activity.
By the end of this year, we should have
achieved that. Poland is a newer venture,
but we're also very interested in this par-
ticular country. Both Hungary and Poland
are heavily agri-based, so strategically it
makes real sense for us to be there. Plus,
they're the most stable in political terms
and, with Czechia, economically the most
advanced of the former Eastern Bloc coun
tries. However, Czechia is strongly indus-
try-based, so we're looking at it closely,
but with less urgency.'
THE BOTTOM LINES
Other former command economies are also
lower down Intemational's list of priorities.
Caution is the key here. 'When we go into a
market, we're there to stay,' says Riedlin.
'Rabobank is anything but a hit-and- run
merchant, so before we start up elsewhere
in this or any other region, we want to see
a lot more political, economie and legis-
lative stability or real opportunities for us
to make an impact. You know, people are
always quoting Rik van Slingelandt's now
famous speech about 100 Rabo-flags in ap-
proximately 50 countries by the end of the
century. Of course, we are in the process of
opening up new markets. But I would say
we also still have enough to do on expand-
ing our existing operations. There is a lot of
work to be done.'
WORKING THE MARKETS
What's NewS asks general managers at new
international locations what the most chal-
lenging aspect of their particular market is:
Paul Chang,
Taiwan:
'Starting up in
an overbanked
market. But I
believe our clear
F&A focus will
make all the dif-
ference.'
Klaas-Evert
Engelse,
Malaysia:
'Serving our
clients as crea-
tively as we can
given the restric-
tions imposed
by our current
licence.
Ronald Blok,
Chile:
'The country's
economy is
booming, so
many foreign
banks are mov
ing in. But we
still score be-
cause we're an
agribank.'
Tjepke Nawijn,
Thailand:
'There are so
many unknown
quantities here,
such as no real
credit rating
agencies. A
near-future pro-
blem will he fin-
ding good staff.
Olivia Chen,
PRC:
'The legal system
here. It is not yet
mature so when
considering a
product the first
thing you have to
think about is:
will it be allowed.'
