'Let's face ityou will
never build a profitat
relationship with a
cliënt based on lendi?
alone. So we have to
cross-selV
Rl forges
transatlantic deal
Focus
24 ISSUE 16 JUNE 2008 THE WORD
Rabobank International acted as the exclusive financial advisor
to leading Spanish wine group Osborne in its strategie business
alliance in the United States with The Wine Group, world 3,d larg-
est player in the wine industry.The two partners joined to develop
new Spanish wine brands for the US market and to further enhance
Osborne's leading position for Spanish wines in North America. The
transaction was jointly executed by RI's New York and Madrid M&A
teams, with thefull involvement of the relationship managers in Spain
and the US. The Relationship Managers -- says Armando de Sanna,
managing director of Rl in New York- played a decisive role in the
origination of the deal opportunity in Spain and in the identifïcation of
the US partner".
In July 2007, Carlos Gomez-Arroyo and Fernando Garcia, respectively
GM and M&A Vice President in Spain, invited Armando to a meeting
with Osborne's shareholders and managers. The company was looking
to increase its access to the highly contested premium segment in the
US.
Rob ten Heggeler (left) and
Rutger Schellens.
Rl has also spent a number of years building up this kind of close
relationship with its clients in Europe, but has only recently begun
to develop a true pan-European strategy, focused primarily on the
Food Agri sector. The bank has identified seven F&A sub-sectors, in
Europe, that it believes to be driven by cross-border deals in the near
future and in which Rl believes it can play a significant role for the ma
jor players in those sub-sectors.
But to replicate any measure of RI's success in the Netherlands on a
pan-European scale, requires incredibly high levels of cliënt intimacy,
Schellens says, referring to the fact that he sees around 60 European
clients on a regular basis. "You have to be even more proactive with
clients outside our home base. We've achieved this with 60 major
clients in Europe, because of our focus on and expertise in F&A. The
question now is whether we want to deepen that relationship even
"Quite frankly, says Fernando, we left the meeting thinking that Os
borne's goal was extremely difficult to pursue, given the US market's
high level of consolidation and competitiveness." Back in the US, how-
ever, Armando approached John McHugh in San Francisco, RM focused
on the US wine business, and John immediately recommended to
approach The Wine Group (TWG). TWG was immediately enthusiastic