Insider's view
About Sekerbank
Investment in the future
Tahsin Sagisman is currently in charge of RI's Turkish operations and is due to be
appointed to the Sekerbank board as Deputy General Manager. 'My main reason for
joining Rabobank, in 2001, was my firm belief that it would add value to the Turkish
market. This belief has only been reinforced during my time with the bank,' he says. 'Once
the Turkish economy started to recover, I began to promote, internally, major growth in
Rabobank's Turkish presence, through an acquisition. I later identified the acquisition
target and have been involved in all subsequent phases.'
'I would describe thegeneral feeling about the acquisition, both within Rl inTurkey and
Sekerbank, as "affirmative anticipation",' says Sagisman. 'My colleagues at Rl Istanbul are
proud that their hard work has contributed to this decision and are looking forward to a
future of close co-operation with Sekerbank.'
The new management team's first priorities will be to play a leading role in the
transformation of the Turkish agricultural sector and to foster the accelerated growth of
SMEs. 'These are the most important pillars of the local economy and Sekerbank will make
a clear commitment to the local community and its development,' Sagisman says. 'For
commercial clients, as well as private individuals, Sekerbank will aim to differentiate itself
by being a bank where clients feel they are valued and are getting real value for realising
their ambitions. Each branch will be attuned to the specific needsof its local market.'
Tahsin Sagisman
Another opportunity for synergy concerns the Dutch market.
The Netherlands has a large Turkish population and we've
already had lots of positive feedback about the acquisition from
these quarters,' says Van de Ven. 'Many of them are very familiar
with the Sekerbank name and the acquisition is already helping
us to attract new customers.'
De Roo concludes: 'Our recent acquisitions in Turkey and Poland
(BGZ Bank) are an investment in the future. They won't produce
substantial returns over the next five years, but they are significant
additions to our international network. Through these two banks
we will have retail staffoutsidethe Netherlands of about one
third of the Dutch retail staff (and the number is even higher if we
take ACC in Ireland and Rabobank North America into account).
Each acquisition is well positioned to grow and is expected to
form a very significant part of our international network over the
coming 10-15 years.'
Sekerbank (Sugar Bank) was established by Turkey's sugar
beet co-operatives in 1953. It has a staff of 3,328 and a
network of 200 branches. With 43 of these in Istanbul, 27 in
Ankara and the remaining 130 distributed throughout the
country's 60 provinces, Sekerbank is the sixth largest of
Turkey's privately owned banks, in terms of geographic
coverage. Although Sekerbank is a relatively small player in
theTurkish banking market, witharounda 1-2%shareof
loans, the majority of its 200 branches are located outside
Turkey's three major cities and its market share of loans in
rural regions is closer to 5%.
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