Chicago - new directions
chicago
What's NewS Issue 7 November 1995
9
The Windy City lies in the heart of America's corn pile.The
bank started an office there two years ago and now has 21
people focusing on one of the most important agri-regions
in the US. But besides its F&A activities and the potential
offered by the large number of automotive and automotive
supply companies in its territory, Chicago will also be
targeting a very new, nationwide market. Manager
Tom Stevens explains.
(left to right) Standing: Michael Butz, Bill Welch, Julie Coomes,
Brian Klatt, Maureen DeRooij, Tom Stevens, Tim Fossa, Chip
Walker, Ron Little, Greg Mojica, Dong Zylstra, Mary Bast and Steve
Philips. Seated: Bridgett Newton, Elaine Endier, Lydia Crowson,
Michael King and Larry Sidwell.
Like Bill Bishop in San Fran-
cisco, Tom Stevens is loathe to
repeat information that we
may have been given by other
offices. But again like San
Francisco, Chicago is certainly
unique in some respects. 'We're
in the middle of the American
Mid-West,' he says, 'and that
means we're in the heart of
what we call the corn pile. So
it makes real sense for us, as
F&A specialist bank, to be
here. And that gives us a very
clear focus even though we're
in all kinds of other F&A sec
tors as well. But, in fact, this
region is also the heartland of
another major industry we're
very interested in - the auto
motive and automotive supply
sector. You know, we really
stand out as a food and agri-
bank because we try to set our-
selves apart through our
knowledge of the sectors to
which we have committed.
Obviously, you can't duplicate
the kind of 100-year commit-
ment we have in F&A in only
a couple of years. But we have
certainly made a considerable
impact on the health-care sec
tor - also here in our region.
Now, we want to do exactly
the same in automotive.'
MARKETING DRIVE
This is one of the key strategie
sectors the whole of the North
American network will be tar
geting from now on, but it is
of special importance to Chi
cago. 'We really did our home-
work on this sector,' says
Stevens. 'We put together what
we call a "White Paper" on the
industry and recently received
the go-ahead from Utrecht.
From my region's point of
view, this is really great news
because over 40 percent of the
automotive and automotive
supply output of the entire
nation is generated here. And
there's another factor that is
just as important. The strategy
pursued by the major original
equipment manufacturers, Fm
talking of the Fords, the
Chryslers and General Motors
here, is to grow globally and
have their suppliers grow glo
bally with them. So strategi-
cally, these are globally-orien-
ted companies and our
Tom Stevens manager
network can benefit from us
being close to our clients.'
STRAGETIC
COMMUNICATIONS
North American Rabobankers
appear to be very good at both
their marketing and their home-
work. While the automotive
"White Paper" was being ap-
proved, they were already hard
at work on another - this time
on telecommunications. 'Here
in North America we want to
build a commitment in this
sector,' Stevens says. 'Bob
Bucklin, our New York-based
deputy genera! manager for
business development, put to
gether a strategie plan and al
ready gave a presentation on it
to senior management in
Utrecht. But we weren't in a
hurry. Then the telecommuni
cations team from one of our
rivals down the street (actually,
it was ABN Amro) came to see
us. They were disgruntled and
we saw it as a one-time oppor-
tunity to have that kind of ex
pertise inhouse in very quick
order. They're a terrific team
headed by Bill Welch and we
brought them on board just
two months ago. They are
going to cover the entire US
for us. So besides the great
F&A and other sector special-
ists we already have here, we
now have this new expert team
in a very new area for the
bank.'
PURINA MAGIC
Larry Sidwell and Brian Klatt put together the Purina deal selected by
Chicago as one of their best recent deals.'We received strong sup
port from Brian James in London when we arranged this transaction
for Purina, the largest compound feed producer in the US/says Klatt.
'It's a securitization of loans to Purina dealers and customers funded
by a US commercial paper program which was rated A1/P1 by both
Moody's and S&P. Besides having structured and arranged the secur
itization program, we are also providing a USD100 million liquidity
facility and a USD12 million credit enhancement.' It is hardly
surprising Chicago is still talking about the deal - it brought in
USD400.000 in up-front fees alone.
CHICAGO - NIEUWE RICHTINGEN
Chicago, gevestigd in het maisgebied van de VS, richt zich naast de Food Agribusiness en gezondheidszorg vooral op twee andere sectoren.
Als eerste de auto-industrie. Meer dan 40 procent van de nationaal verkochte auto's worden hier geproduceerd (Ford, Chrysler, General Motors).
Deze sector en hun toeleveranciers maken een wereldwijde groei door. De tweede is de telecommunicatie sector, waarvoor een vijf-man sterk team
van ABN Amro werd overgenomen om de markt te bewerken.Tom Stevens benadrukt in zijn verhaal de snelheid waarmee beslissingen bij de
Rabobank worden genomen, zodat direct op kansen kan worden ingespeeld.
