tabobank
leijing Represent
5 SF. o ft sa tï X
Off'ce
What's News Issue 2 February 1996
international networking
5
lengthv meeting with senior people from
BAOSTEEL, the largest and most modern
steel plant in China with an annual output
of 11 million tonnes in 1996 due to the
completion of a new plant and USD 8
billion in worldwide sales turnover. 'We
also had a long discussion with people
from the Shanghai Machinery
Equipment Import Export Corporation
(SMEC),' Hedrich continues. 'Both
^ompanies have subsidiaries in Hamburg.
We spent a few hours with them, and that
is exceptional for a Chinese business
meeting. In addition, we also had
discussions with an official from the
regional department of economie
relations. The general manager of a
German subsidiary in Beijing also
attended that meeting. In fact, we really
got a lot out of the contacts on both
sides.'
CONCRETE BUSINESS
The combined Hamburg-Shanghai
approach has proved just how effective
networking can be. 'Rather than merely a
fact-finding mission,' Hedrich says, 'the
visit actually brought in some concrete
business. Both BAOSTEEL and SMEC's
Isubsidiaries in Hamburg will become
'rade finance clients in February. Olivia
and 1 are both really happy at this
outcome.' And so is the bank. The fact
that Shanghai is in the process of
upgrading to branch status and a new
representative office has been opened in
Beijing shows how seriously Rabobank is
looking at opportunities in the People's
Republic.
DE HAMBURG-
SHANGHAI LIJN
Hamburg, Duitsland's
grootste haven en Shanghai, drukste
havenstad in China, hebben sinds tien jaar
een speciale samenwerkingsovereenkomst.
Burkhard Hedrich van Rabobank Hamburg
en Shanghai's Olivia Chen zijn bezig om
deze ook voor de Rabobank te laten
werken. In Hamburg zijn ongeveer 150
Chinese bedrijven vertegenwoordigd,
waaronder grote Chinese staatsbedrijven.
De kansen voor handelsfinanciering zijn
dan ook legio. In China bezochten Chen en
Hedrich een aantal van deze bedrijven,
waaronder BOASTEEL, China's grootste
staalfabriek. Het eerste resultaat is al
binnen. Met twee van de bezochte
bedrijven wordt al zaken gedaan.
She has only recently started establishing
the representative office in the Chinese
capital and will need some time to build
up contacts. But in Hamburg we're
already looking forward to seeing what
we can do together.'
MORE NETWORKING
Singapore was also on Hedrich's agenda
and, again, combined efforts paid off. 'We
made joint visits to six German
subsidiaries in Singapore,' says Hedrich.
'One existing cliënt and five prospects in
the coffee, grain, oil, feedstuff and
fertilizer sectors. The result was two new
credit lines for USD 10 million each to
RECRUITING FOR
COMMUNICATION
'It is certainly a very attractive market for
us in Hamburg,' Hedrich confirms. 'In
fact, management in Frankfurt is
convinced there is a lot more we can do
through the large Chinese presence here in
the city. Because of this presence, there is
also a significant Chinese community,
many of whom are German-born and
educated. We've been given the green light
to start looking for an experienced banker
from the Chinese community here in the
city because we feel language is extremely
important. If you want to do business, you
have to be able to communicate.'
BEIJING NEXT
The main focus of Chen and Hedrich's
joint marketing effort was Shanghai, not
least because this free-trade zone offers a
lot of potential for combined operations.
'The next time we get together, probably
later this year,' says Hedrich, 'we'11 also be
working with Dai Hu (below) in Beijing.
finance and facilitate self-liquidating trade
transactions backed by the Hamburg-
based parent companies. In Hong Kong, I
also met with a number of grain, tapioca
and fertilizer trading houses that look set
to become clients of our office there. That
was really useful.'
RECIPROCAL EFFORTS
For Hedrich, this first introduction to the
bank and its network has clearly been an
extremely positive and fruitful experience.
'I can only say that this combined cross-
selling approach shows how enormous
our potential is. We all did a lot of
preparatory work and I am certainly
looking forward to doing more with the
trade finance people in Asia to strengthen
our business in Hamburg. And that will be
reciprocal from our side, too. There is a
lot of trade between Germany and Asia -
the team in Hamburg will be putting every
effort into ensuring we get a real slice of
that particular pie.'
