Winning
position
Nobel knowledge share
focus: our Dutch specialization and inter
national Food Agribusiness knowledge.
We have a great team of highly ambitious
and creative people, who can win a fair
share of the business. Also, our cliënt
networks through the Rabobank Group
and our partnership with Equities (sales and trading) as our
distribution network have been absolutely vital to our success.'
For the coming year, De Bekker and his team will also be focusing
on consolidating existing services to financial sponsors. 'If we do
that, we'll vastly improve our dialogue with them.'
Athlon Holding N.V., an international provider of automobile solutions, was seeking to increase its capital base by
9.9% to finance the take-over of UniLease. The Corporate Advisory Unit of Rabo Securities was appointed global
co-ordinator of the equity issue. In addition, Rabo Securities was able to offer the valued added necessary to
clinch the deal and lead the transaction: Corporate Advisory's team was so confident of its understanding of
Athlon's market, and the quality of the company, that six weeks prior to the transaction they guaranteed the
proceeds at a certain price. 'We had studied the market,' explains Frank de Bekker, Managing Director of
Corporate Advisory, 'we knew that the investor market could take the price, we had a firm position on Athlon,
and so we feit that it was a risk we could take. By taking that risk, we could earn more money. The cliënt was happy
and our research and understanding of the investor market earned us a higher commission and a loyal cliënt.'
It's not often you get an opportunity to
rub shoulders with Nobel prize winners,
or to quiz them one-to-one on their
view of markets and strategies. Unless,
that is, you happen to be a Rabo
Securities cliënt. 'Dinner with Scholes'
was much more than a chance to sit
down and dine in style with Myron
Scholes, whose pioneering work on
derivatives in the early 1970s earned
him the 1997 Nobel prize for economie
science. Around 130 clients were able
to share views with him, both at his
seminar, the Q&A session and, of
course, during dinner. Said one cliënt
representing Shell's pension fund, This
is really an amazing opportunity to hear
from the originator of the Black-Scholes
options pricing model exactly what he
thinks about our business. It was great.'
