4
lts the can-do mentality
change that we re after.
lts about rubbing shoulders
with the experts and learning
how we can really help
our elients
RE GION SPECIAL AS IA
Sander Pruijs:
Shifting focus
16 ISSUE 19 APRIL 2009 THE WORD
closer to the M&A business, or looking at
opportunities to create farmland funds.
That's how we'll make a difference. We need
to work across boundaries - be that regional
boundaries or product boundaries. If we look
at the M&A opportunities that will arise in the
next three to five years, for example, it will be
very much cross-border focused. Company
A buying Company B, from Country C into
Country D." One recent example of cross
border activity involves a deal carried out by
the bank's Food Agribusiness Research and
Advisory (FAR) unit, Rabobank's global F&A
knowledge provider. "FAR has a very strong
global reach," says Pruijs. "It recently obtained
a mandate from a corporate cliënt in China
to advise them on a business deal within the
juice-producing industry, after the company
acquired a largejuice producing company
there. Interestingly, the company is an
important cliënt of our Atlanta office in the
United States, so FAR's ability to successfully
provide a key corporate cliënt with advice
on one side of the world could lead to real
opportunities opening up in other parts of
the world. It's this ability to provide what is
often unique business services globally that
we really need to capture going forward."
Sander Pruijs believes that the F&A sector
in Asia is ripe with openings for an expert
player like Rabobank. "If you look at our
Asian business today, you see that we
serve a variety of cliënt sectors, but the F&A
sector is really our core business. Yet still
people say to me 'If you only focus on F&A,
will that really be enough? Isn't that too
narrow?' And my answer is typically: 'Let's
try it'. I don't think we've ever really gone
after the sector in a fully-fledged way. Have
we really unleashed the full potential? The
answer is no. By concentrating on the right
products, and by creating little incubators
for innovation - be that on the F&A research
side or in areas such as the cooperation
agreement with Rothschild on the M&A
side - we'll make a difference."
As part of the revised strategy, business
locations in Asia are being asked to provide
evidence of how they will increase their F&A
market share. "As an organisation, we will do
everything to increase that market share,"
■SgHHH says Pruijs. "However, that
also means that anything
and everything that is
non-core will have to be
reduced over time. Now,
clearly, in this particular market where there's
very little liquidity on existing assets that will
be difficult, so we will have to keep our eye on
the ball with respect to our legacy portfolio,
while still developing new business activity
within the F&A space."
As that non-core business is reduced and the
core business is built up, cliënt focus will
take on even greater significance. "When we
talk about back to basics, and back to the
roots of the bank, cliënt focus is the number
one priority. One of the bank's co-operative
principles is that we work and operate in
the interest of our elients, which means that
cliënt leadership is called for."
For staff in the region, this will mean a
re-positioning of priorities and ambitions.
Pruijs: "We're going to have to be creative
and innovative when it comes to utilising the
diverse skill sets available within the bank.
Perhaps this will mean puiling F&A research
