Edinburgh expansion
Edinburgh
Qj
14
WHAT'S NewS Issue 2 February 1996
SBecause our corporate banking
and structured finance people
O have worked so hard on this
relationship, it will be much
easier for us, as syndications,
to compete against the
NatWest's and Rothschild's of
this world for the mandate on
John Lewis' next syndicated
"Vj deal.' But the task is not
limited tp the UK and Halcrow
is already working closely with
other corporate banking teams
in the bank throughout Europe
and even as far away as
Australia.
BIGGER DEALS
The clear orientation towards
moving Rabobank up the
tombstone has already paid
dividends for the team at
London Branch. 'We're now
competing against really big
names, like Chemical Bank
and UBS, and winning
mandates. Last year, we
submitted over 20 deals to the
Underwriting Committee. Of
course, we didn't win the
mandates on all of them. But I
think the fact that last f
December we put in an
underwriting bid for GBP 600
million shows just how far
we've come and where we
want to go.'
Like their colleagues in London, the three-person Edinburgh
team - Neil Gullan, John Maltby and secretary Elaine Brown -
are also making full use of the broader range of products
the UK operation now has to offer.
GROUP EFFORT
By this he means his team is
not only marketing the full
range of treasury and
corporate finance products
developed by his London-
based colleagues, but is also
utilizing the expertise of
subsidiaries, such as De Lage
Landen. 'We have done two
excellent deals recently with
DLL in Dublin,' he says. 'One
is a GBP 20 million sale and
lease back for a North-Eastern
automotive company. This was
a new, tax-driven structure we
developed specially for this
company. Once it had been
closed, we found we could
tailor it to other cliënt needs.
So that is what we've done.'
TIGHT PROFESSIONAL
COMMUNITY
The Edinburgh team is also
doing a lot more. 'As I said,'
Gullan continues, 'our primary
market was L&A. There are a
lot of very interesting large
corporates based in out target
regions. So we are servicing
them, of course. But now we
have more products to offer,
we're also looking closely at
other sectors where we could
Neil Gullan
Set up in 1990 to service
corporates in Scotland, Ireland
and North-East England, the
Edinburgh team has carved out
a sound niche for the bank in
its primary target market.'
At the same time,' says Neil
Gullan, 'we have managed to
broaden our activities in our
designated regions by
capitalizing on opportunities
where our growing product
range can be used. In fact, you
could say Edinburgh is a kind
of blue-print for how we can
approach the market as a
group.'
John Maltby
provide higher added value.'
According to Gullan, the
professional environment in
which the team operates can
be of assistance in growing
business. 'That's right,' he says.
We not only network with our
own Rabobank colleagues, but
also within the business
community itself here. We are
increasingly receiving
introductions to clients from
law and accountancy firms in
the region. The professional
community here is relatively
tight. We're finding that
lawyers especially are
beginning to work much more
proactively for their clients. It's
in their interest as coming up
with creative solutions helps
them preserve their cliënt base.
In the end, it all comes down
to networking.'
SIGNIFICANT ROLE
The fact that Gullan and
Maltby are often introduced to
clients means they rarely go in
cold. 'That also helps our
product specialists from
London because we only bring
them in when we feel there is
real interest,' Gullan conforms.
'I'd say we are strong on
origination and initial
marketing here.' It appears as
if Edinburgh's thorough
marketing approach is paying
dividends. The office had a
very good year in 1995; among
its successes are a number of
good benchmark deals,
including the underwriting of
GBP 150 million for Scottish
Power's acquisition of
Manweb and the arrangement
of short-time debt for long-
standing cliënt Scottish and
Newcastle's acquisition of
Courage Breweries. 'What
makes us very happy', says
Gullan, 'is that these were two
of the most important deals in
the Scottish market last year
and we had a significant role
in both of them'.
Elaine Brown
EDINGBURGH: GRENSOVERSCHRIJDEND
Vanuit Edingburgh wordt onder leiding van Neil Cullan de corporate markt van Schotland, Ierland en het Noordoosten van Engeland'
bewerkt. Daarbij wordt het uitgebreide produktenpakket van kantoor London met succes gebruikt. Het benutten van de contacten
met De Lage Landen in Dublin heeft ook succes: twee grote deals werden zo afgesloten.