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Rabo acquires
5 O-PERCENT STAKE
IN Robeco
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Rabobank
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What's NewS
Monthly internal newsletter for Rabobank International
Issue 7 July 1996
Announcing the take over - Robeco's Pieter Korteweg
leftand the bank 's Herman Wijffels.
Rabobank is to take a 50-percent interest in Robecam, the
Robeco Group's umbrella management company, as a first step
towards total acquisition of the the international asset manager.
The bank has a call option on the remaining 50 percent of equity
which it will exercise if Robeco can doublé its assets under
management within a period of four to five years. The bank will
be paying an estimated NLG 500 million for its initial stake, and
a further NLG 500 million for the second tranche.
A strategie alliance has existed between Robeco and the bank for
the past five years, with the asset manager distibuting its
products through the local bank network in the Netherlands.
According to chairman Herman Wijffels, the acquisition will give
Rabobank the asset management expertise it needs to achieve
international ambitions. For Robeco, the take-over means not
only increased distribution power, but also the capitalization
essential for further international expansion.
(continued on page 3)
in brief
contents
DLL - INTERNATIONAL
EXPANSION
_This month saw the ongoing
^ternational expansion of De
I.age Landen's factoring and
leasing activities as part of the
package Rabobank can offer
clients. DLL has started up in
Brazil and a joint venture
agreement has been signed
with Rabo-BRP in Poland.
Raibo do Brasil's commercial
team has been reinforced by
DLL specialist Frans Bosse.
While Bosse is responsible for
the whole of Latin America,
his initial focus will be offering
receivables management and
risk coverage products to
Brazilian exporters targeting
European markets. Says Teun
de Boon, 'Both Raibo and DLL
see this as a win-win situation.
We gains a broader product
range and DLL can build
further on its market position.'
COLLATERAL CONTROL
SYSTEM ONLINE
A new program which allows
the bank to see at a glance the
risk position of clients with a
flexible credit limit depending
on collateral has gone live in
Utrecht. 'Our current systems
are based on clients with fixed
credit limits collateralized by
fixed assets,' says account
manager Rob Schols who
worked with software
designers to produce the new
program. 'What we needed
was an online option to
evaluate the real-time risk
position of clients with a flexi-
limit. The final prototype has
been initiated into our system
now and we're live.' The only
drawback to the new system is
the fact that much of the
essential data is generated
through ATLAS. 'As yet,' says
Schols, 'most of the
international offices do not
have this system. So if they
want to use the application it
would have to be on a stand-
alone basis, with data input
manually.' Rabobank Belgium
has already opted for the
stand-alone application and is
currently installing the
software.
WHAT'S IN THIS
MONTH'S ISSUE OF
WHAT'S NEWS?
Robeco - complementary
take-over 3
The bank's future strategy -
it's official 5
Celebrating Singapore -
a special to mark 10 years 7
EMU - what it means for
banks 17
Deal of the month - who got
it 19
Talking heads Jaap Slotema
goes on the record 20
LL's Frans Bosse (left) with his
new Raibo colleagues.
