I
Treasury niches
WHAT'S Nf.wS Issue 10. November 1997
special
9
René Rottschalk (left) and Anna Noé making up the
trade and export finance team.
know-how transfer to 25
business managers and
department heads from major
hospitals in the North Rhine
»egion. Discussions are also
ingoing to publish the
seminars in book form. That
could be a sponsorship
opportunity for the bank. This
is not a hugely high profile
event, but it is very good PR.'
The team is clearly pursuing
the external side, but they are
also interested in working
more closely with F&A
specialists on the
biotechnology side of the
business. 'We see synergies
there that could be very useful
in penetrating this fantastic
growth market.'
ECA KNOWLEDGE
The Frankfurt team is
fcecoming increasingly used to
^eeking synergies, especially as
it focuses more and more on
utilizing inhouse expertise to
create customer value.
'Structured solutions' and
'tailored responses' are high-
sounding buzz phrases, but the
ability to achieve them requires
intense and comprehensive
cooperation. A full trade
finance team is in place located
in both Frankfurt and
Hamburg. lts expertise already
distinguishes the bank on the
credit side. 'We came to the
conclusion that we were not
utilizing ECA opportunities as
well as we could,' says René
Rottschalk, head of trade and
«port finance. 'We couldn't
deliver German ECA-covered
transactions to the network.
Multi-sourcing is crucial these
days if you are going to get the
best structure for your cliënt.
That has changed now. There
are so many instruments
available to structure deals
that as trade and export
finance people you have to be
aware of all of them because
your relationship with clients
is rather like a marriage. Some
export finance deals can last
12 or 13 years and you're
constantly in touch with the
cliënt.'
EASTERN BOOM
According to Rottschalk, the
international network is
growing in importance in his
team's relationship with
customers. 'If one of our
German customers is
considering a deal with a
corporate in, say, Poland and
he sees we have a branch there,
then they call and ask us to
check out the prospective
trading partner. That could
open up more business for us
primarily because we have the
network. We're seeing a
healthy growth in cross-border
trade with all regions in the
world, but Eastern Europe is
booming.'
RABOBANK RESILIENCE
Like the corporate banking
side, Rottschalk and his team
are very much focused on
F&A and health care. And like
the rest of their colleagues in
corporate finance, they are
looking to provide a range of
products to support the
corporate bank in becoming
the leading F&A bank. As you
talk to the Frankfurt
Rabobankers, the fact that
many have spent the last few
For most of our Frankfurt colleagues, the seemingly never-ending
reorganizations have come to an end. For the commercial side, a clear
focus on food and agribusiness and health care is an unequivocal
mission statement.Through the creation and application of
structured solutions employing the expertise of colleagues
throughout the network the relationship managers in the German
financial centre will be able to build reputation. Only one group still
faces some uncertainty.When What's NewS poke to Frankfurt
Rabobankers, our people on the investment banking side were still
waiting to hear exactly how Frankfurt fits into the whole. 'We know
that a niche approach is how the whole network will handle the
various products on the
investment side,'says Valerie
Schlegel. 'So we were very
happy to hear that Frankfurt
will continue to do equity
derivatives;that has given us
something definite to focus
on.' But the IB team is also
hoping to be able to handle a
variety of other products,
including for example
Pfandbriefe,an increasingly
popular and very specific
German instrument that is
currently handled from
Utrecht. 'Nothing is settled
yet,'confirms Schneider,'but we are still in the process of establishing
Rabobank as an investment bank in the market here.We don't yet
have that reputation - people don't automatically think of us as the
provider of investment banking products. By the time our
relationship managers have introduced the idea to our clients and by
the time those customers have become accustomed to this
capability,then we will be in a position to provide them. Like all new
approaches, these things take time.'
Valerie Schlegel - definite focus
on equity derivatives.
years raising enthusiasm for
what proved to be endless
reorganizations is not
particularly apparent.
Everyone is eager to talk, to
explain what is happening,
what could happen, where
they see opportunities.
There is, of course, some
grumpiness: when is the
investment bank going to get
The acquisition
finance team
Cormac Lucey
and Norbert
Schmitz are
working on
adding value.
started? But that's primarily
because the very resilient
people in Rabobank
International, Frankfurt
Branch simply want to get on
with it. Perhaps that is what
they need most - the assurance
that the apparently clear focus
that seems to be firmly on the
table remains just that: a focus
for the future.
