Good fit
Quiet change
Go west
Complete package
Continued from page 9
Founded as the Agrieultural Credit Corporation in 1927, ACC
has a long history of financing the agrieultural sector.
Rabobank decided to acquire ACC because it identified with
its core values, its heritage and its focus on Small and Medium
Knterprises (SME) in the rural sector. 'We feit there was a fit
between the two banks,' says Murphy. 'Also there are strong
similarities between the Irish and Dutch markets. Both
economies are relatively small on the global scale, are very
open and prosper on trading with bigger neighbouring
countries.'
Even more appealing was the fact that ACC's management
team had already commenced a change program to dramati-
cally restructure and refocus the bank in response to a number
of problents they had in the 1990s. 'ACC was already taking
the pain to restructure the bank including reforming its human
resources, and the Irish government was paying for this,'
Murphy says. 'All this meant efficiencies were going to be
made. The scheme in place showed culture change was already
embedded so Rabobank wouldn't have to use its own manage
ment time kick starting a big change program. Rather, it could
continue to faci 1 itate the program already in place.' Rabobank
retained ACC's existing management in full, appointing only
two fulltime Rabobank people to the bank: Jan Molenaar who
has 25 years of valuable Rabobank retail experience, was
appointed as ACC's Deputy CEO, and Warren Newell who
was seconded from RI's London branch to the position of
Head of Internal Audit and Control.
Late July 2002 saw the announcement of
Rabobank Internationals acquisition of
VIB Corporation. The acquisition will
add a retail channel and access to Califor-
niaone of the US's largest Food and
Agrieultural (F&A) regions. This move
builds on RI's existing IIS corporate and
investment banking business, addtng a
strong retail operation. VIB Corp is a
bank holding company providing finan-
cial services primarily in California
through its subsidiary, Valley Independent
Bank, which operates under the trade
names Bank of Stockdale and Kings River
State Bank. It's a conimunity banking net-
work connecting 24 locations across 500
miles in California. As a network ofcom-
munity banks, VIB Corp sbares
Rabobank's focus on local decision mak
ing and customer value. Furthermore, it
boasts a prominent position in its market
areas and a highly respected management
team.Tbe acquisition of VIB Corp is ex-
pected to close in the fourth quarter 2002,
or early in the first quarter of2003.
'When Rabobank bought ACC it bought its strategy to refocus
on specific areas such as the SME market, the agri market and
the higher end of the personal market,' says Molenaar. 'ACC is
too small to provide all services to all clients, so it had begun
refocusing on the mid-SME' market because the volumes and
margins are high.' Redefining the target market was an added
dimension to the change program that was underway. Since
the acquisition, Rabobank is supporting ACC's further
development of the change program.
The Word I 11