Atlanta - new in the atlanta NETWORK 10 WHAT'S NewS Issue 7 November 1995 Unlike most US offices, the most recent addition to the North American operation did not begin life with an exclusive food and agribusiness focus. Atlanta started off on October 6 this year with a combined portfolio of F&A customers and general corporates. And according to brand- new manager, Adriaan Weststrate, the equally brand-new south-eastern operation expects a lot of growth on the corporate side in the coming years. made the top 10 business cities in the world. So you see we're really enthuosiastic about what's happening here.' (left to right) StandingDel Mastrangelo, Margo Ludoph, Garry Weiss, Steve Rick, Adriaan Weststrate, Wayne Riess, Marco Krapels, Micbelle Bocbory and Walter Bland. Seated: Phylana Johnson, Jocelyne Lallemand, Terrell Boyle, Joyce Niggley, Rick Beard and Betty Mills. 'At present, the portfolio we have here is fairly equally divid- ed over F&A and corporate business,' Weststrate confirms. 'But there are some great op- portunities for us in the region to increase both. 1'm thinking here of the fact that the south- east is one of the fastest grow- ing regions in the US. It out- performs all national growth figures and that is down to a number of reasons - cost of living, quality of life, excellent transportation connections with the rest of the world. For tune magazine just published a survey which named Atlanta the most favoured city for cor porate relocation and we also TEXTILE TARGET Besides the potential growth of the south-east as a relocation area, with all the M&A bus iness that could bring with it, the Atlanta team also has a number of concentrated and thriving industries in its terri- tory. 'One is certainly the tex- tile sector. We're already very big in cotton in the US and that business is handled by New York because our com- modity people are based there. But here in the region we have between 80 and 90 percent of all US textile mills. We hope to get the go-ahead to target this sector. In recent years, the American textile industry has made a massive investment in PAPER CHAIN Atlanta may be the new kid on the North American block but the team has already managed to close a number of deals in the few short weeks since they opened.The transaction they have selected is for a global paperboard and machinery-based packaging system company. 'We have done a five-year USDI 2.5 million off-balance sheet synthetic lease for Riverwood International,' says Weststrate. 'This is a great company headquartered here in Atlanta and 1994 sales of USDI .3 billion.The synthetic lease acts as a loan for tax purposes and as an operating lease for off-balance sheet purposes. It's a neat structure and we hope to do more like it.' modernizing its mills into the most cost-effective and ef ficiënt in the world. Almost the whole process has been auto- mated, so the industry no longer suffers from the cost disadvantage it used to have.' MARKETING THE NETWORK Atlanta needs no approval for the pulp and paper industry - another traditional mainstay of the region's economy. 'But the competition is tough in this and other sectors we consider food and agribusiness,' West strate explains. 'Other banks see these as general corporates, but whatever you want to call it, we're still going for it. And we want to build considerable portfolios in health-care and Adriaan Weststrate public Utilities here as well. New York is providing support for our emphasis on expanding the product portfolio. But I think we still place a bit too much emphasis on selling credit. As a global bank, we have so many other things to offer customers - not least our international network. I see that as a product which most banks don't have. The network opens up so many opportun- ities. You can go in to see a customer and say: Can we help you in Brazil perhaps, or in Singapore, or maybe in Europe. That's a truly terrific product in itself. And we'11 be taking full advantage of it.' ATLANTA - NEW KID IN TOWN Onze jongste vestiging in de VS richt zich in tegenstelling tot de andere vestigingen vanaf het begin ook op de niet-agri doelgroepsectoren. Atlanta wordt gekenmerkt dooreen snelle economische groei. Veel bedrijven verhuizen naar deze stad, die tot de top 10 van zakencentra in de wereld behoort. Een speciale sector in deze regio is de textielindustrie. Ongeveer 85 procent van alle Amerikaanse textielfabrieken is hier gevestigd. Deze industrie is volledig gemoderniseerd en staat bekend als de meest efficiënste ter wereld.

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1995 | | pagina 10