'trustworthy,
creativity,
partnership'
Roompot, CEO,
Mr. H.J. van Koeveringe:
working to add to their material wealth, but are
also looking for quality time with friends and
family during weekends or short midweek
breaks. Roompot is one of the leading leisure
groups in the Netherlands, offering Dutch
cottages and leisure parks for luxury holiday
makers and camping lovers alike.
Transferring skills
Key to success
Fully-fledged banker
Staying local
uccess
'Rabobank was a big support in refinanc-
ing the Roompot Group in order to realize
our objectives. The capability and involve-
ment of staff as well as their local network
was certainly their strength. We will look
to them to continue to support us with
creative solutions.'
Roompot started as a camping ground in
the 1960s. In the 1990s the company
decided to capitalize on the opportunities
arising from the emerging leisure culture.
However, growth in the leisure park indus-
try could only be achieved through the
acquisition of parks, and therefore the
company needed to raise capital funds.
The dilemma became an excellent oppor-
tunity for Rabobank Nederland to add
value to Roompot's future growth.
Through a private placement of equity
targeting retail investors, we supported
the cliënt by inventing a special vehicle
that allowed Roompot to access funding
without having to come up with any capi
tal themselves. It was quite a complicated
process where we used several entities of
the Rabobank Group to back it up (such as
Group Treasury and Schretlen &Co.),'
describes Paul Roosen (pictured),
Relationship Manager at Rabobank
Nederland Corporate Clients in Breda.
Today Roompot is the third largest leisure
group in the Netherlands with over 15
leisure parks across the country and a
turnover of approximately €100 million.
'The growth has merely been financed
through structured finance deals, which
typically are very complex and time con-
suming. Our strong position in F&A has
undeniably brought us a lot of skills in
structured finance and we have success-
fully applied those skills in the leisure
industry, here for the benefit of Roompot,'
Roosen says.
Paul Roosen spent a significant amount of
time with Roompot in 2003. 'A successful
cliënt relationship depends on the people;
mutual satisfaction between people on
both sides, frequent contact and the time
you spend with the cliënt to discover who
they are and what they need. It is also
important to ensure open communication
and allow even controversial issues to be
discussed. Of course, it is equally important
to perform well, especially in the early days
of the relationship, and that way gain cru-
cial confidence of the cliënt for future
transactions,' says Roosen.
The work for Roompot has been very
much a team effort between numerous
functions across the group, one of which
was Treasury, which was involved in hedg-
ing the interest rate in, typically, highly
leveraged deals. Schretlen Co. also par-
ticipated as part of the private placement
together with 11 local Rabobanks which
took part in a syndicated loan to fund the
acquisition of one of the critical leisure
parks in 2003. 'We are a fully fledged
banker for Roompot and are using almost
all available cross-selling opportunities to
successfully serve the cliënt,' Roosen says.
Moreover, Rabobank offers a distinct
advantage for NL based clients. Roosen
reports: 'While local competition is puiling
back from smaller cities, we remain local to
the cliënt. It is an unbelievable strength to
be able to offer the cliënt local availability
with the possibility to fly in specialized
support for delivering the deals.'
The Word 19
