Building on business
Rabobank's royal visit "IiSr
in brief
contents
Rabobank
Monthly newsletter for Rabobank International fof intGTfldl U5€ Otlly Issue 7 July 1998
Poland's euro focus
Wbat's happening
around the networh?
We've got the lowdown
in What's NewS
Under construction
International
Kiev's banking licence
What'sNewS
It is not every organization
that merits a centenary
speech from both the prime
minister and president of the
central bank. Rabobank's 100-
year anniversary proved
reason enough for these two
extremely busy gentlemen to
make time for a word of praise
for the once tiny rural credit
cooperative that has grown
into an international giant. But
the biggest applause from an
kudience of 5,000 was for Her
^lajesty the Queen. Although
she didn't speak, even to echo
prime minister Wim Kok's
recognition of Rabobank's
contribution to social and
economie development in the
licence includes approval for
20 banking activities,
excluding cash management.
Euro fever is clearly hotting
up, even in countries who
cannot realistically expect to
join the single European
currency for some years. Yet,
the growing awareness east of
the EU bloc of what the euro
could mean for countries such
as Poland and Hungary is
attracting real attention. Our
team in Warsaw is already
anticipating interest and
providing a forum for
knowhow exchange. Over 50
corporates attended a Euro
seminar organized in June.
Comhining Rabobank
expertise and insight from the
Polish Central Bank and other
national organizations, the
seminar was airned at
positioning RI as strong
partner in Euroland. 'People
think the euro is a long way
off,' comments Warsaw's Piotr
Czarnecki. 'Like people in the
eurobloc, we believe they'11
find it's closer than it seems.
We need to be prepared.'
A day at the office - Stephan
Riphaus on customer relations 3
Millennium - New York is on top
oftheproblem 4
Training update - the F&A account
managers course - part II 7
Centenary celebration - royal
reception for Rabobank 8
RICO - customer intimacy and
corporate finance in focus 10
Talking heads - Bram Kruimel 16
General Assembly lent a seal
of royal approval. Accepting
the official history of the
Rabobank organization from
supervisory board chairman
Wim Meijer, he reminded the
sovereign that we share an
important centenary with the
royal family. The present
queen's grandmother,
Wilhelmina, was crowned
exactly 100 years ago. 'Our'
queen remained for the whole
afternoon's festivities,
reinforcing the importance of
the bank for Dutch society as
a whole.
Sovereign seal of approval - HRH Queen Beatrix at the General Assembly (for more, see pages 8 9)
RI Frankfurt branch will
structure and arrange a closed-
end real estate fund for an
office building in the Dutch
town of Amersfoort. In the
NLG 100 million deal,
Frankfurt will set up a tax
driven structure in which a
special purpose company
purchases and rents the
building to Dutch telecom
company, KPN. The purchase
Brice will be mainly financed
with equity
eontributed by
German private
investors. The
building is due
for completion
in the course of
next year. The
move follows
the recent
success of three
similar funds,
including the
headquarters of the
Organization of Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons in the
Dutch city of The Hague, a
deal to the tune of NEG 71.5
million.
Published hot off the press on
our What's NewS electronic
news flash was the recent
approval of Kiev's banking
licence. The renamed
Rabobank International
Ukraine now has a 65 percent
shareholding of what was
formerly known as the Kiev
International Bank (KIB). The
