Deal of the month
IT Update
What's NewS Issue 11 November 1996
info exchange
15
The deals: NLG 790 million
bridge loan; co-manager in
share issue; 6 percent (NLG
37.5 million) participation in
Cum Pref shares; real-estate
partnership DEM 150 million;
private placement NLG 220
million.
The cliënt: Océ-van der Grinten
NV's acquisition of the printer
division of Siemens Nixdorf
Informationsystemen.
The players: Hans van Imhoff,
Ferry de Vries and Rob van
Zadelhoff (corporate banking);
Tjeerd de Vries, Jos Schreurs,
Wilfried Mulder and Sipko
Schat (structured finance); Paul
Michielsen and Rutger
Brascamp (financial markets);
Adriaan van Ravenstein and
Arjan van Rijn (Rabobank
Deutschland); Dominique Bech
and Marianne Schoemaker
(Rabo Securities); Geert Jan
Beuming (credit analysis);
Gerard Nordemann
(participations).
It has been a fascinating nine
months, in vol ving just about
every discipline within
Rabobank International. The
above list of deals shows just
how broad our range of
services and products has been
for cliënt Océ-van der Grinten.
The cliënt first approached the
OCE-VAN
DER
GRINTEN
De overname
van Siemens Nixdorff Informa
tionsystemen door Océ-van der
Grinten bood de mogelijkheid
te laten zien wat we kunnen:
snel en efficiënt een complex
pakket financieringen aanbie
den. Binnen vier dagen werd
een voorstel gepresenteerd
hoe de acquisitie gefinancierd
zou kunnen worden en in de
maanden daarna vonden de
uitwerking en onderhande
lingen plaats. Samenwerking
tussen de diverse teams en
korte communicatielijnen
maakten het mogelijk deze
deals binnen te halen.
From left to right, Wilfried Mulder, Paul Michielsen, Tjeerd de Vries,
Jos Schreurs and Hans van Imhoff.
corporate banking team with a
request for a presentation on
how we would tackle their
acquisition requirements on
February 24. 'Océ-van der
Grinten was looking for
finance to support the biggest
acquisition in its history,'
recalls Hans van Imhoff of
corporate banking. 'I think the
whole team would agree that
the really challenging thing
about this deal was the fact
that it required bringing
together a whole complex of
structures and solutions.'
Putting together a deal of this
complexity is never an easy
matter, and the team had only
four days to come up with its
presentation. 'The four days
included a weekend,' Van
Imhoff laughs now. 'But the
cooperation between all the
people involved from various
disciplines was absolutely text
book. It had to be, given the
time pressure. I think it would
be fair to say that short lines of
communication enabled us to
make a conditional
commitment to making this
package, and all its elements,
work - both for the cliënt and
for the bank.' Further
elaboration and negotiation of
the various deals in this broad-
based package would take a
further nine months after the
official presentation. 'The real-
estate partnership especially
demanded great patience,
expertise and hard work from
the structured finance people,'
says Van Imhoff, 'and it would
also be fair to say that a lot of
people in other departments
put in a lot of work which
didn't always come to the level
of fruition we hoped for. On
the other hand, Océ has long
been a cliënt and we have
painstakingly built on our
relationship with them. We
would certainly never have
been invited to present if that
relationship hadn't been
sound. The bottom line is that
we have demonstrated clearly
that by teaming our efforts, we
can build this level of complex
package rapidly, efficiently and
effectively. And we hope
there's still more to come.'
looking ahead J-
November 26
December 10
February 25-26
Studies
November
December
Health Care Seminar, Utrecht
Forecast 1997 meeting, Utrecht
Euromoney's International Bond
Congress, London
The World beer market
Forecast 1997
The first phase of the IT
system'sfinal implementation
is scheduled to begin soon. An
important preperatory
conference was held in Utrecht
on 29 October.Two of the key
'Opex Project'Committees -
('Stream ll'responsiblefor
small-/medium-sized branches
and 'Stream l'for large/complex
branches) - met to review
progress sofar.
Their joint session included:
A demonstration of the
Atlas module of the so-called
'Rabo Branch Model'software;
A presentation of 'Quick
Wins' - the codename given to
simple IT system challenges
that can be solved with relative
ease (such as the accounting
methodology for return on
solvency,the provision of a
central help desk,and the
creation of Atlas tutorial
workshops);
An overview of
developments in the
International organization;
A question and answer
session on policy;
A debate over the
implementation strategy and
sequence, based on the
consolidation of the Business
Reviews.
The branches are now
specifically defining their final
requirements - (for example,
one foreign branch might be
obliged to generate a weekly
report for the central bank in its
jurisdiction while another must
produce detailed trading
information for authorities
every day.)
