Peter Greenberg
Worldwide network
Heading north
office into a branch, which mitigated
the legal lending limit issues.'
'Since 2003, we have been able to
legitimately lay claim to C-1 relationships,'
says Greenberg. The United States
branches had a head start on us, but
we're catching up quickly. For example,
we are now much more successfully
engaged than ever before on the M&A
and Advisory fronts.'
Rabobank's Toronto branch is now a
top-tier lender and strategie advisor to
some of Canada's, and the world's,
leading F&A companies. lts F&A cliënt
base has more than quadrupled since
2002 and now includes the world-class
fertiliser producer, Agrium; Maple Leaf
Foods (the fifth largest pork processor in
North America); and McCain Foods (the
world's largest producer of French fries).
'Canada is among the world's top five in
several categories of international trade,'
Greenberg concludes. The Toronto
branch is now sustainable and our General
Manager, Govert Verstralen, is actively
pursuing promising "country banking"
opportunities. The Canadian market has a
very important role to play in Rabobank's
overall strategy for North America.'
'Our international network is something
we'vefocused on leveraging in recent
years,' Bucklin résumés. 'As clients expand
into South America, Eastern Europe, China,
India and elsewhere, we can use
Rabobank's global network as an
advantage over the competition. On
multiple occasions, for instance, Smithfield
Foods hasasked Rabobank tofinance
acquisitions and joint ventures in the pork
sector, in countries like Poland and Mexico.'
Weststrate can cite similar examples.
'Keystone Foods is one of the largest
Peter Greenberg is Managing Director
ofCorporate Banking's Toronto office,
in Canada. While the office was
established in 1998, most of the growth
in clients has occurred since 2002, when
Greenberg and a newly recruited team
of Relationship Managers arrived. 'At the
time, the office's legal lending limit per
cliënt was just CAD$ 10 million, which
restricted portfolio growth,' says
Greenberg. 'Regulatory changes
allowed the conversion of the Toronto
and Finland. The 2004 financing of the
latteracquisition involved manyof RI's
product groups, including Syndications,
Rl Securities, Securitisation, Risk
Management and Corporate Banking.
And we actively use our international
network for AGCO, in places like London,
Germany and Brazil.'
suppliers of chicken products to
McDonald's. They set up subsidiaries in
Australia and the UK, and we financed
these transactions with the help of our
colleagues in Australia and London. Our
global focus, combined with our local
knowledge, gives us a competitive
advantage over most other banks in the
United States and we must continue to
exploit this wherever possible.'
The Word
