*Rabobankers at work
a day at the office
Targeting Germany's food industry
Doing business comes naturally to Stefan Riphaus, a senior relationship manager
on the corporate banking side of our Frankfurt operation. What's NewS followed
him for a day to report on business as usual for corporate banking in Germany.
Mid-morning
Lunch
Afternoon
Evening
What'sNewS Issue 7' July 1998 3
For Stefan Riphaus, the morning begins
early; part of his previous evening will
have been spent in research for the day
ahead. When the clock strikes eight on
this particular morning in June, Riphaus
is sipping coffee and reviewing his e-mail
traffic as a call comes through from
Thailand. Bad news: an export finance
deal has collapsed. But there is little time
ko dweil on disappointment. At 8:30, he is
^neeting with a local sugar producer. Just
enough time to make a quick call to a
new prospect, a supplier of sweets and
biscuits. 'A new cliënt will often start by
asking "Who? What bank? What can you
do for me that other banks can't?'"
Riphaus says. 'With any luck, they'11 let
us make our sales pitch.' Today he is
lucky. He succeeds in arranging a meeting
- this time face-to-face.
The rendezvous with the sugar producer
is more problematic. 'The existing
relationship is absorbing too much of our
scarce equity; I'll have to explain that we
need to explore other alternatives,
perhaps on the more value-added side of
sophisticated financial management
services.' Back in
the office by mid-
morning,
jf Riphaus has just
enough time to
fïre off a volley
of emails,
soliciting input
from investment
bankers and
other colleagues
Stefan Riphaus - around the
launching ideas network about a
new business
idea, before leaving again to meet with
the treasurer of a leading German food
retailer. 'Once we made it clear we were
not going to try and sell him cheap
money, the conversation turned to the
more knowledge-intensive sides of his
business. He is interested in pre-
Rabobank InternationaPs Frankfurt
Branch is helping to organize an
important conference for medium-sized
food companies in Germany, to be held
in three months' time. The two-day
event in late October will be offered
under the auspices of
Lebensmittelzeitung (LZ), Germany's
leading food magazine, and will attract
high-calibre speakers from throughout
the industry. Organized jointly by
Rabobank International and Dr.
Roventa AG, an LZ related consulting
firm, the event is expected to attract up
to 200 owners and managers of
Rabobank target companies. While
many of these companies are well-
served financially in the over-banked
German market, the event will give us
a perfect opportunity to present our
unique strengths as dedicated 'sparring
partner' and strategie adviser for firms
spread across the F&A supply chain. It
comes at a time when issues of
domestic and international
reorganization are high priorities for
Germany's important 'Mittelstand', the
small-business and retailing sector.
'Many important players in Germany's
food industry are small- to medium-
sized, family owned companies,'
explains Stefan Riphaus. 'Because of
this fragmentation, we're going to see a
lot of restructuring in this market over
the coming years.' In Germany, we
have traditionally been involved in the
agriculture industry, but far less so in
the food sector. Therefore, the
conference will provide an important
opportunity. 'We have paved the way
for improved access to the owners and
managers of companies operating in
this sector,' Riphaus says. 'This gives us
a chance to show how much we can
offer, not simply in the field of straight
finance but in M&A and IPO-type
transactions as well.'
production financing to one of his
emerging markets suppliers. This led to a
more wide-ranging discussion about
market strategy.' Stephan's research from
the night before now starts to pay off.
'Sometimes, I think I ought to fire myself
and join the M&A network. The food
sector in Germany is really ripe for
restructuring.'
Riphaus is waiting at a restaurant when
his guest calls to cancel lunch at the last
minute. He returns to the office with a
sandwich to find a pile of messages and
yellow post-it notes littering his desk. He
has to sort out a cliënt whose relationship
manager has left the bank, leaving him
without a point of contact. Meantime, his
emails about the new business idea have
produced a few responses; 'most
Rabobankers around the network still
regularly fail to return emails and phone
calls.' If his idea is going to fly, he will
have to launch it on his own. But there
are more pressing priorities. Meetings
with both the treasurer and purchasing
director of an Anglo-Dutch food
multinational; the former proves fruitless,
the second yields results. 'Very often, it's
the business guys who appreciate our
grasp of their markets. The financial
people think exclusively in numbers. In
this case, I arranged a presentation
prepared by our F&A research people
and given by a senior manager. Maybe
today will turn out well.'
Back in the office, he has received more
feedback from colleagues around the
network - theory and practice sometimes
coincide. The rest of his time is spent
fielding a call from the New York office,
which wants some help establishing
relationships in Germany for a US cliënt,
and sorting out a complaint from the
German subsidiary of a Dutch company,
which is still dissatisfied with our
international cash management services.
Riphaus' schedules usually run quite late;
today, he takes the train to meet with
colleagues in Utrecht. On the way, he
works on arrangements for the Food
Industry Conference (see box), and
answering emails. 'To really establish
Rabobank in an over-banked but "under-
sophisticated" sector like Germany's
food industry, you have to be on top of
things. It takes extra time and effort, and
you have to be patiënt because results
don't always appear at once,' he says.
