corporate banking
10
WHAT'S NewS Issue 7 July 1996
Koh Ban Aik
enormous impact on the
market in Singapore.' Yong
Meng is quick to give credit
for this success to his team.
'We've been totally focused,'
he says. 'The team we've
managed to put together is
extremely experienced.
Because we know this market,
we haven't wasted time on
putting up proposals for
transactions we did not think
would gain head office
approvals. In fact, you could
say we have an almost 100
percent success rate in that
respect.'
SELLING POINT
Singapore is a major world
port with a high degree of
automation and close strategie
links to Rotterdam. But a great
deal of the volume financed by
the team never actually docks
here. 'That's right,' Yong Meng
confirms. 'A lot of our
business is, for example, Thai
rice going to Indonesia, or
Indonesian fertilizer for
Vietnam, or wheat out of India
to Vietnam. A big advantage
here is our international
network. When we go into the
market, we're not just bringing
our own experience of trade
flow patterns and an
understanding of the
commodity itself, but also how
it should be financed. We have
that know-how here in
Singapore. But we also have it
in other offices in the
network.' Yong cites Brazil as
example. 'You have a customer
in Singapore for soy bean oil
out of Brazil for Pakistan. We
work closely with Sao Paulo
on closing the transaction. The
fact we can do that is an
additional selling point for the
customer.'
NEWTERRITORY
Yong's team has recently added
a further enhancement to what
it can offer clients. 'You mean
forfaiting,' he laughs. 'We're
in almost constant
communication with London
branch at the moment to
develop our forfaiting unit.
We've managed to recruit a
specialist, David Yee, to head
up the unit. It's a logical
progression for us because we
also originate a lot of trade
ourselves. So we need to sell
off a lot of the risk into the
market to manage both our
country limits and internal risk
constraints. It's new territory,
but there's already great
demand.'
BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
Another new product in the
branch is syndications -
according to Den Heijer - Koh
Ban Aik and his corporate
banking and structured finance
department have put Rabobank
firmly on the map in this
business. Their branch forms a
cohesive group of eight
account managers (including
Koh) who have responsibility
for specific national markets in
the region served by Singapore.
'We fulfill a number of roles,'
says Koh. 'Perhaps the best
way to describe our activities is
as a business development
centre. In addition to our own
market we also provide both
marketing support and the
more sophisticated products to
our other offices in the region.'
CENTRE OF
COMPETENCE
According to Koh, Thailand is
a good example of how the
Singapore team works. 'What
happens is that you open up a
market. If the climate is right,
the bank then establishes a
presence there, usually a rep.
At present, the Bangkok team
is in the process of establishing
a branch after which business
will switch to Thailand. A
similar pattern of development
occurred in Indonesia,
Australia and Malaysia. Once
the branch is established, we
continue to play a role as
centre of competence. For
example, our Indonesia
operation takes care of its own
bilateral lending, but we would
do syndications or project
finance transactions for them:
the products that require
specific technical competence.
It is difficult to have all the
expertise you require for all
the products you want to
market in every office.'
GROWING
SYNDICATIONS
Koh's team is very exciting
about the potential offered by
syndications capacity. 'A year
ago, we were not active as an
arranger for syndicated
transactions. In the past 12
months, we have arranged 10
deals. This year, we've closed
four and three more are in the
pipeline. One of our current
favourite deals is the USD 76
million transaction we put
together for a Thai customer.
We won the mandate after an
extremely fierce fight with two
other banks. The original
mandate was for USD 50
million. We syndicated it to the
market and managed to bring
in a subscription of almost
USD 100 million. The
borrower couldn't take all of it
because of government
restrictions, but they took 76
million. It was a very satisfying^
experience for us all. And it
made us a very substantial fee
income.'
MAKING PROGRESS
Agri-Project finance is another
area that is bringing in
dividends for Singapore. 'We
are really doing very well in
this area,' Den Heijer
confirms. 'We have a dedicated
team located here in the
branch and they have built up
a real expertise in the specific
markets of South-east Asia.
Their activities have put us
firmly on the F&A map in the
last couple of years.' In spite of
carving out significant niches
in F&A, Den Heijer insists
Singapore still has a long way
to go. 'We're not the number
one in all sectors of
agribusiness,' he says. 'But
what I would like to emphasize
is that we have certainly
initiated an ongoing process
whereby we are transforming
from a loan-oriented operation
into cross-selling products
which generate higher
earnings. That process is not
yet complete, but we're
definitely making progress.'
SAMENWERKING IN DE REGIO
Samenwerking tussen de kantoren in de regio vindt veelvuldig plaats, mede door het grote aantal grensoverschrijdende
activiteiten. Ook al is Singapore een havenstad, veel gefinancierde goederen komen hier nooit:Thaise rijst gaat bijvoorbeeld direct
naar Indonesië en kunstmest uit Indonesië wordt rechtstreeks verscheept naar Vietnam. De binnen ons kantorennet opgebouwde kennis op het
gebied van commodities en financiering hiervan is een groot voordeel. Daarnaast is de mogelijkheid om zowel de exporteur als importeur
plaatselijk terzijde te staan een duidelijke product-plus.