De Lage Landen
- ADDING VALUE
12
networking
What's NewS Issue 6 June 1996
'We all know how competitive banking has become
these days,' remarks Ton Toebosch, Executive
Chairman of Rabobank's wholly-owned leasing and
factoring subsidiary De Lage Landen. 'How are you
supposed to compete? It's not enough just to offer a
cliënt a large box of cheap money; any bank can do
that. You have to offer customized solutions - new
products that add value for your cliënt.'
Ton Toebosch
De Lage Landen brings fresh options into
the Rabobank network in three forms:
factoring (which is managing the
receivables of a company), vendor leasing
(which is an arrangement designed to
increase the turnover of vendors who sell
capital goods such as trucks or bottling
machines), and finally expertise (which is
an indepth understanding of new cliënt
markets).
DATA SERVICE
Toebosch cites a specific example. 'Say
you're a Dutch flower exporter to France
or Italy. You're a relatively small
organization with low overhead. You have
to put up a lot of money to buy flowers at
auction and your future absolutely
depends on getting payment from your
foreign customer in good time. We can
help with the usual export financing - in
principle up to 100 percent. But we can
also offer data about this flower exporter's
counterparty - for example did that party
pay the last bill on time? We can offer
credit assurance and even exchange risk
management. Indeed, we can completely
take over the management of the clients'
assets.'
PLUGGED IN TO CASH FLOW
De Lage Landen can afford to do this
because of its extensive information
exchange network. Unlike the bank, it has
direct computer connections with its
clients and its counterparties. 'If we
receive a payment in Italy, our cliënt will
know about it an hour later,' says
Toebosch. 'We are totally plugged into his
cash flow situation at all times.' De Lage
Landen has also built up a unique pan-
European network that no other
competitor can fully match. In the EU, it
has offices in Belgium, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the UK. These
were initially set up to help Rabobank
clients (like the flower exporter) with their
sales abroad. Since then, they have
evolved to help foreign Rabobank
customers in markets abroad. One
example might be to help an Italian textile
exporter with his receivables elsewhere in
Europe.
CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS
In France, De Lage Landen has pioneered a
reverse factoring arrangement where it acts
as an intermediary between the large
supermarket chain Promodes, which is a
cliënt of Rabobank France, and its various
small suppliers. 'There was a tension
between these small suppliers - the people
who delivered bread, chickens, and
vegetables on the one hand - and
Rabobank France's cliënt Promodes on the
other. The suppliers were upset that
Promodes was paying too late. Promodes
naturally wanted to aggressively manage its
cash flow - but it didn't want to threaten
the continuity of its supplies. We stepped
in and took over the suppliers' receivables
after we received a solvency guarantee for
Promodes from Rabobank France.
Everyone was satisfied in the end.'
INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
The strategy is to seek such synergies by
DE LAGE LANDEN - WERELDWIJDE AMBITIES
De Lage Landen (DLL) biedt nieuwe kansen voor onze klanten. Met name
door producten als factoring en vendorleasing en haar grote kennis van
diverse markten. Via factoring kan een leverancier geleverde goederen
vast door DLL betaald krijgen, terwijl de afnemer nog niet betaald heeft. Daarnaast kan DLL
het betaalgedrag van de afnemer snel natrekken dankzij het opgebouwde uitwisselings
netwerk en een kredietverzekering regelen. Ook kan zij het beheer van de debiteuren
portefeuille geheel overnemen.Vendorleasing geeft leveranciers van kapitaalgoederen
(bv. vrachtwagens en kopieermachines) een extra marketinginstrument in handen. Zij
kunnen hierdoor hun afnemers in staat stellen bijvoorbeeld een kopieermachine niet zelf
aan te schaffen, maar een vast bedrag per kopie te betalen. Zo kan de afnemer haar vaste
kosten omzetten in variabele kosten. Meestal richten DLL en de leverancier een joint venture
op onder de naam van het bedrijf. Hierdoor kunnen producten onder eigen naam geleverd
worden, zonder dat de lasten op de balans drukken. Met haar unieke Europese netwerk kan
DLL onze binnen- en buitenlandse klanten van dienst zijn. Het streven is om in elk land waar
een Rabobankkantoor is ook een DLL verkoopkantoor op te zetten. New York en Sao Paulo
staan al op de kaart. Wie volgt?
