Rabo Securities Proactive integration Focus on capitalization 1BU ÉS Last month saw an important step in Rabo Securities' (RS) ongoing effort to "d%w- - bolster its already established, though at times embattled position on the markets. The unit, which is becoming an increasingly important contributor to the overall business development of the Rabobank Group as a whole, announced that it will act as senior co-lead in the prestigious initial public offering (IPO) of WorldOnline, a burgeoning Internet service provider that is soon to be floated on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX). This announcement firmly puts to rest any speculation and negative publicity tliat might have been aroused by the defection last November of fornter Rabo Securities chief Andries Mak van Waay together with several senior players including the heads of trading and research. Quite understandably, this departure, which was widely reported in the domestic and even the international press, gave rise to speculation that the Rabobank Group might be less than serious in its commitment to developing the RS franchise. In fact, as subsequent developments have shown, nothing could be further from the case. 'My predecessors' behaviour was terribly inelegant and deceptive,' says Willem Beelaerts van Emmichoven, the new RS chair. (A financial markets veteran of considerable stature, Beelaerts' decision to join Rabobank on short notice quashed much of the negative publicity.) 'To be quite honest, I've never in my entire business career known of an executive who spent three months preparing his own defection, sitting all the while behind his existing entployers' desk. Still, these things do happen.' Beelaerts is keen to shrug off the faintest hint of any long term damage as a conse- quence of those shifts. 'At first of course, it canie as quite a shock both internally and on the market as a whole. People here feit isolated and vulnerable; market play ers voiced certain concerns about the continuity of their relationships with RS. That was to be expected. But the fact that we were able to move so quickly and indeed to hire back two of the contmer- cially most important people we initially lost, without resorting to the lure of increased salaries, decisively demonstrates the underlying potential inherent in the franchise we've so carefully built up to this date. True, we had to go through a period of damage control, but the vibra- tions on the market and in the corridors here at RS in Amsterdam clearly indicate that we've left that phase behind.' Of immeasurable help, together with the positive announcement of our senior co-leadership of the WorldOnline deal, has been the fact that Rabo Securities' strategie role within the context of the Rabobank Group has now been clearly and unequivocally enunciated. RS's responsibilities within RI, plus its commit ment to support the newly established Rabobank Nederland Grootbedrijf as well as the member banks, are now clear, even if the broader implications of the DG cooperation project, as well as certain details such as internal service level agree- ments, remain to be finalized.Within the framework that has now emerged, Rabo Securities is firmly integrated within the functional orbit of the newly established RI business unit known as 'Equity and International M&A', while it formally remains a legal entity in its own right. Among other things, this tie will pave the way for a much more proactive network- ing between RS and other divisions in the Rabobank Group. As before, RS's core activities will be corporate advisory work (equity including M&A), plus research, sales, and trading. What's NewS Issue 7 January/February 2000 I I

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

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