CLIENT FOCUS
I J
Proactive sourcing
Portfolio growth
Client intimacy
Frans van Bijsterveld - proactive sourcing Santiago Aranguren - working on partnership
squeeze through increasing retailer
power. The retailers' almost monopolis-
tic inarket position as distributors
allows them to drive down prices. Santi
ago Aranguren, RI Madrid Senior Rela-
tionship Manager, explains, 'As in many
other markets, large hypermarkets and
supermarkets account for about 50-60
percent of the total distribution of F&A
products sold in Spain. These hypermar
kets have a very dominant position. As a
result, they can determine prices paid to
suppliers, usually large F&A companies.
The only way for the F&A companies to
strengthen their bargaining position is to
consolidate. Front a banking perspective
this presents a wealth of business oppor-
tunities, including Mergers and Acquisi-
tions (M&A).'
But to take advantage of those opportu-
nities, you have to know the market and
the cliënt very well. RI Madrid is ac-
tively combining its own deep local
knowledge with the expertise of the
Food and Agri Research (FAR) business
unit to position RI as an authority on
F&A industry issues in the Spanish mar
ket. Both RI Madrid and its clients are
harvesting rewards from the dual - advi-
sory and financial - role being under-
taken. Frans van Bijsterveld, RI F&A
Business Manager for Europe, says, 'The
clients are benefiting from a financial
partner who knows their business and
their markets as intimately as they do.
Proactively sourcing new opportunities
for clients based on their individual
strategie goals is also driving Rl's own
business development further. It's ahout
partnership and that is so much more re-
warding, in every sense, than reactively
serving up financial products only when
the cliënt puts his hand up.'
Across the network new business oppor
tunities are being identified by perceiv-
ing and working with clients as partners.
'This approach has definitely reached
maturity in Spain,' says Aranguren.
'One example here is the thriving rela-
tionship we have cultivated with a local
Spanish equity firm, Inveralia. During
the past three years, RI has assisted In
veralia in growing its investment portfo
lio to a 40 percent concentration of food
sector business, with significant invest-
ntents in the growth food processing and
food service industries. 'In doing so they
have gone from being a C3 cliënt to a
Cl cliënt. It's a process of making intro-
ductions, offering advice and adding
value to the client's business. Thinking
from the client's point of view to realize
opportunities for them in the market
and understanding the issues of greatest
concern to them, often looks like coinci-
dence to the cliënt, but it takes a highlv
organized internal effort. In reality, this
is a systematic and strategie process of
match-making clients and driving their
business forward by alerting them to
potential growth opportunities and
preparing them for ehallenges.'
RI Madrid's relationship with Inveralia
has indeed resulted in a number of
M&A deals, in addition to healthy
servings of Treasury products (mainly
interest rate and foreign exchange
hedging), plain vanilla lending and value
added lending, such as structured term
loans. Aranguren says that, obviously, it
is not the products that are particularly
innovative. 'What is different is that we
have cultivated cliënt intimacy over a
number of years,' he says. 'Many of the
companies we deal with have always
been, and rentain family-owned. Foyalty
and trust have enormous value so it is
very important to nurture the business
relationship so that these qualities
emerge. The goal is to become part of
22 The Word I