Oeal of the month IT Update Ncm/4 WHAT'S News Issue 10 October 1996 short news 11 The deal: USD 275-million receivables-backed trade finance facility The cliënt: Ghana Cocoa Board Cocobod The players: Mauk Faber and the international trade finance team in Utrecht; Robert Halcrow and the syndications team in London. A networked approach involving Rabobankers in Utrecht and London to build a pre-export facility for Cocobod, the Ghana Cocoa Board, has Ékilminated in the biggest Ttructured finance deal we have ever done. Says Mauk Faber of Utrecht, 'The transaction proved to be the largest receivable backed syndicated trade finance facility for soft commodities. Our colleagues in London took it into the market at USD 225 million and due to massive over- subscription - USD 440 million - the facility was actually increased to USD 275 million.' This is the fourth time in a row that Cocobod goes to the market to arrange pre-export finance for its cocoa erop. 'Last year,' says Robert Halcrow of London's syndications team, Jwhen we tried for the first time Im win the mandate, Rabobank was on the short list, but Standard Chartered beat us. At that time, we joined the syndication at lead-manager level for USD 10 million. This DE CACAO DEAL Kantoor Londen en Utrecht werkten met succes samen met de Sumitomo Bank of London aan de grootste structured trade finance deal die ooit voor soft agri commodities is gedaan. Deze syndicated deal voor de Ghanese Cacao organisatie Cocobod betreft export voorfinanciering van NLG 275 min.en is op dit moment de meest prestigieuze syndicated faciliteit in Afrika. From left to right: Mauk Faber, John Newton - Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board, Gijs van der Scbrieck and Robert Halcrow. was later downsized to six because of heavy over- subscription.' One of the reasons for this repeated over-subscription is Ghana's position in the cocoa sector. Although not the largest single producer (Ivory Coast is by far the biggest), Ghana generates 14 percent of world production. The quality of the erop produced there is extremely good which is why it eams a premium in the market. 'The reason for this high quality,' Faber explains, 'is definitely the role and activity of Ghana's Cocoa Board. We have been to An international meeting on ideas for implementing the cliënt focus strategy was held in Holland on 8 and 9 October. A special publication,theTask Force Update, reports. looking aheacT)- Milan is celebrating its first lead- manager position in a syndi cated facility.The cliënt is F&A corporate SICAM and the deal is a ITL 29 billion four-year facility. see them several times in Accra over the past two years, resulting in a good understanding of their business. After the export of gold, Cocobod is the second largest earner of foreign currency and its activities are monitored by the government. In May this year we indicated again that we would like to bid for the mandate. Through working closely with colleagues, especially Robert in London, we were able to win this deal with Sumitomo Bank in the City as co-arranger. Not only is this a major agri-deal which is recognized as such globally. It is also the most prestigious syndicated facility on Africa today.' October 28-31 Studies October November December 'Handelsmissie'Moldavia and Romania Country studies South East Asia (6) The World Beer Sector The World Beef Market The pilot e-mail system is performing well, offering much improved capabilities,and the plan now calls for global implemetation next year. The big picture is being reviewed continuously. Among the more pressing items on the agenda include defining the methodologies.deciding how we will meet regulatory reporting requirements,and devising a sufficiently dynamic amd flexible support organiz- ation for the overall IT system. Meanwhile.the IT program has kicked off a recruitment campaign which is aimed at drawing in more Rabobank staff members and reducing our necessary initial dependence on outside consultants. The finishing touches are also being applied to the 'Basic Branch Model'-which is the system's architecture for large and medium-sized branches. There are plans to add a Front Office module for FX and money markets. Development and assembly of the software components for the first phase of the Branch System is also proceeding on Schedule. A skeleton system will be ready for practical trials later this year. A choice of the PC package to be used in the new branches - which has already been narrowed down to a shortlist of two possible suppliers - is expected soon. Budapest,still waiting on regulatory approvals for a Giro connection and a full FX banking license - will be the first office supplied with the new system. Work proceeds on four implementation projects: Devon in New York; Eximbills in Hamburg, Antwerp, and New York; the Devon/Atlas accounting interface in Dublin; and,finally,the Atlas upgrade in Madrid.

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 11