health care
Selective operations
European need
Pharma to farmer
What sNewS lssuell*Novemberl998
Operating on
success, attending
the health care
conference:
Front row: left to
right: Paul Nash,
Berry Marttin, Peter
de Bruin, Jan van Flall, Xu Jun,
Arnold Kuijpers.
First row standing, left to right: Peter
Sugarman, Frits Mönking, Irene Floukes-van
Dijk, Lincoln Flolland, Ellen de Werdt,
Christine Pillsbury, Chaidir Sani, Marina
Spelt, Anne Flockett, Mark Broer.
Second row standing, left to right: Lydia
Crowson, Frank van den Fleuvel, Patty Gout,
Alexandro Ampudia, Michal Milczarek,
Santiago Aranguren, Tony Leigh, Shawn
Leiand, Luuk Flans, Robin Bargmann.
Third row standing, left to right: Erik Struss,
David Thomas, Max Blom, Neil Spalding,
Michel van Schaik, Piotr Czarnecki, Dick
Schulze, Flal Gerber.
Back row, left to right: Fleitor Portugal,
tan Reece, Adam Johnson, Barry Ftenry,
Christel Marien, Francisco Cuesta,
Flans Winkelmolen, Richard Cerf, Gerard
Gregg-Smith.
ground. The health care people were on
firmer ground when it came to
kresentations on their own research and
Tnowledge base. The second morning saw
presentations trom Andy Tivenan of the
equity research group; trom Shawn
Leiand on pharmaceuticals; and Sam
Fazeli who is specialized in biotech. RI
has one of the top biotech research teams
in the industry and is already building the
R1 name in that sector.
Focused workshops on RaboCare (see
Wbat's NeurS, 9/1998) and shifting to
higher value products rounded out the
two-day event. Concrete action is already
underway within the network to achieve
RI's objective: to build a strong franchise
in international health care business as a
basis for profitable, long-term banking.
This will be achieved, according to Arnold
^Cuijpers, by growing our reputation for
industry knowledge, customer orientation
and banking skills. Steps have already
been taken in this direction. 'We've
developed what we call "focus within
focus",' he explains. 'We will concentrate
on selected countries, selected sub-sectors
and selected products.' Unsurprisingly,
five of the six selected products were
represented at the conference - the sixth is
export finance, which actually means
leasing and is usually done in cooperation
with De Lage Landen.
As part of that focus - which Kuijpers
quickly points out means focus on and
not exclusion of other health care markets
and sectors, a team has already been esta-
blished to service an increasingly
attractive European market. 'European
countries are looking for options to fund
health care in the face of a growing grey
population,' he argues. 'EMU means they
cannot increase their public spending
deficits, so these countries, many of which
have traditionally funded health care as a
national service, must find alternatives.
Our view is that this will lead to a grow
ing and more important role for private
health care. We can be in there, we can
take a considerable share of that market.'
European relationship managers and
product specialists front around the
world are meeting regularly now to
create a strong foundation for concerted
action in this potentially huge market.
In addition, health care teams will also
be targeting what have been defined as
very attractive pan-European pharma
companies. Of the companies involved,
the huge names in this industry are:
Glaxo Wellcome, Novartis, Bayer, Rhöne
Poulenc, Roche, Smith-Kline-Beecham
and a number of others. The presence of
Novatis, as an example, in this select
group is a further indication of how we
could leverage off existing and long-
established F&A relationships with such
major players. 'Basically,' Kuijpers
concludes, 'this is about networking and
about knowledge sharing. As a team, the
health care people are very, very team
oriented and we think that shows - in
our results, in what we've achieved
over the last two years. However this is
only the start - we've still got a long
way to go.'
