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.