Malaysia/Thailand
yvhat's NewS
Malaysia -
BUILDING BUSINESS
Supplement hor What's NewS May 1996
After only one full year of activity, the eight-person
Malaysian team is feeling pretty optimistic about
performance over 1996. 'We're hoping to consolidate
the basis we laid in 1995/says Klaas-Evert Engelse, who
heads up the banks two-location operation in Kuala
Lumpur and Labuan. 'And we're also hoping to finalize
some interesting deals this year.'
BURMA
LAOS
THAILAND
VIETNAM
CAMBODIA
KUALA LUMPUR
SINGAPORE
SUMATRA
Engelse is clearly excited by
the deals Malaysia currently
has 'in the oven', and he can't
resist talking about some of
the projects he and senior rep
Valentine Khoo are working
on as part of their efforts to
build the bank's presence in
Malaysia. 'I can't say anything
definite yet,' he says, 'but a lot
of the groundwork we did in
1995 is really starting to
produce results.'
STARTING FROM
SCRATCH
When Engelse started up the
Malaysian operation in
August, 1994, he began with
what he calls 'a foot in the
door. We had a number of
existing contacts,' he says,
'Our Singapore people had
done some good work here,
but you couldn't consider
those contacts a broad base.
We hadn't systematically
worked this ntarket before. So
when we arrived here, we were
starting almost from scratch.'
Erom scratch also meant
Engelse had to put together a
team, not only for the Kuala
Lumpur office, but also for the
obligatory Labuan presence.
'That took most of 1994,' he
recalls. 'You start with an
office, in our case two offices,
and you have to set up shop,
build your organizational
structure before you can
actually start positioning
yourself in the market. It takes
a lot of time.'
GROUND WORK
Says Khoo, 'Last year was very
much a time for knocking on
doors and cold-calling. Until 1
joined the bank nine months
ago, Klaas was actually
running a one-man show in
that respect. He did a lot of
ground work. While I'd say
we're now still in the process
of building relationships, our
strong food and agri-focus
clearly helps us in this market.
There are deals we can do, and
deals we don't do. In the short
term, it would, of course, be
easier if we could piek up
anything and everything. But
that is not what we're trying to
do here. We're very much a
focused, specialized bank and
that means we can go for our
target companies effectively.
The efforts we've put into
making our name known in
the F&A sector are starting to
pay off now. Recently, a
company actually called us and
asked if we'd look at a deal for
them. We didn't know them,
but they knew us. That's pretty
gratifying.'
F&A OPPORTUNITIES
At present, the Malaysian food
and agri-sector as a whole is
not as well developed as in
some other Asian countries.
'But,' says Khoo, 'Malaysia
has countless plantation
companies that could be
potential clients for us. On the
processing side, the sector is
perhaps less advanced, but our
government has announced it
F.l.t.r. Valentine Khoo, Elaine Tang, Rangani Santhi, Klaas-Evert
Engelse.
MALEISIË
De vestiging in Maleisië is ondanks haar korte bestaan sinds augustus 1994 al volop in aktie. Men verwacht nog dit jaar een aantal
interessante deals te kunnen afsluiten. Kantoor Singapore had al een basis gelegd waarop kon worden voortgeborduurd, maar een
systematische marktbewerking was vanaf die afstand niet mogelijk. Actieve benadering van klanten met een duidelijke focus op
F&A levert nu resultaten op. In de pluimveesector zijn al transacties afgesloten met vier van de belangrijkste bedrijven.
isèntatlve op
