Rabobank in the Americas: a growing presence
Sustaining growth
clients, as well. At the end of the day, Rabobank is a
cooperative bank and we try to instil a cooperative
mentality, not only between departments, but also
on an individual level.'
The coming five years should be very interesting,'
Broekhuyse says. 'I expect to see further acquisitions,
mainly in retail banking. But if we see opportunities in
which acquisitions will broaden the GFM business,
we will certainly consider them.'
'Potential acquisitions are much harder to find in
South America, where we're focusing on internal
growth. We recently set up a network of agri-finance
offices throughout Brazil, where we're targeting
Brazil's biggest farmers as our clients (see page 7-9).
We're hoping to expand this network to 30 or 40
offices by 2008/2009. Chile is another country in
which we're looking to expand our coverage, and in
Argentina and Mexico, we've already built up a
reputation as being "the" F&A bank. Over the
coming five years, we'll also place more emphasis
on Canada, and we expect Rabobank to develop in
a similar way there as it has in the United States, with
more branches and perhaps an acquisition.'
'The Americas are a major economie and agricultural
region,' Broekhuyse concludes. 'Rabobank in the
Americas currently employs around 1500 staff and
the region produced over 40% of RI's overall profits
in 2005. The Americas is well-suited to Rabobank's
F&A concept. Their F&A markets are sufficiently
large-scale for us to specialise in this sector and I
envisage them remaining important regions for Rl
for the foreseeable future.'
'Finally, I mustn't forget to mention our Telecom,
Media and Internet (TMI) group, which went through
a rocky spelt in the first few years of the new century.
It came through this, however, and is, once again, a
very healthy contributor to our overall results.'
Since 2001, the numberof Rabobank offices in the Americas has increased from 12 to 112 (98 in North America and
14 in South America).
2001 Rural Lending business launched in Chile.
2002 Rabobank acquires Valley Independent Bank (VIB), in California.
2003 Rabobank acquires Lend Lease Agribusiness, which is renamed Rabo AgriFinance.
Rabobank acquires Ag Services of America, which is renamed Rabo Ag Services.
2004 Rural Lending Pilot Programme starts in Brazil, 4 new offices opened.
2005 Full fledged Rural Lending programme launched in Brazil, 6 more new offices opened.
Valley Independent Bank changes its name to Rabobank, N.A.
Rabo AgriFinance and Rabo Ag Services merged under the banner of Rabo AgriFinance (RAF).
October - Rabobank announces acquisition agreement with Community Bank of Central California, a
14- branch community bank in the Central Coast of California. The acquisition is expected to close in
February 2006.
