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

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blad 'RI The Word / The Word' (EN) | 2002 | | pagina 22