Adverse conditions will allow us
to prove our real strengths 9
B What do you think of the revised
Rl strategy?
B What will be the biggest
challenge?
H How important will
Renewable Energy Finance
be in the future?
SI Do you see opportunities
to increase cross-sell within
the group?
H Do you enjoy working at
Corporate Finance?
A"Personally, I think it's a logical step to
make choices now. It increases our focus
and helps us to use our capital and other
resources more efficiently and effectively.
And the timing is actually not bad at all.
If ever there was a time for us to prove
what we are capable of, this is it. This
is a perfect time for us to build deeper
relationships with our clients and make
F&A a successful and profitable business,
but of course the strategy revision can
have a big impact on individual employees.
Saying that, the immediate impact on
Corporate Finance is relatively moderate.
For instance, Leveraged Finance has been
focusing on the F&A business for some
time. The target we've been given is to
have 75 percent of our core business
with F&A clients and Dutch clients. We're
already at 70 percent, so we're well on the
way to meeting that target. We've been
investing in this for two or three years
already, and we've been pretty successful
at profiling ourselves to private equity
players through our F&A sector knowledge
and presentations. Working with M&A is
really starting to pay off with some very
successful joint deals in 2008. There's still
work to do, but we're well on our way."
A "Well, clearly realigning the Structured
Finance business to the new strategy will
be more challenging. We're bound to work
with a smaller cliënt base at Corporate
Banking and GFM, making it more difficult
to source the right transactions. On the
other hand, we've shown in the past year
that we can come up with products for
the F&A sector and the renewable energy
sector. So, we're pretty confident we can
come up with interesting transactions for our
future cliënt base again. The Executive Board
has also decided that Structured Finance
will act as the centre of competence for the
whole group for structured transactions,
which is a clear recognition of the quality of
our people and our products. We shouldn't
forget that this has been a very profitable
business for the past 10 years and we are
determined to maintain this reputation.
And very importantly we'll also be raising
funding and capital for the bank, something
we've been very successful at for over 10
years now."
A "A key principle for Rabobank is to act in
a sustainable manner and to serve interests
that hold for the long term, for our clients,
our people and our planet. Through our
financing activities we facilitate sustainable
investments that reduce the world's future
dependence on fossil fuels and combat
global climate change. It's definitely a
growth sector, and one that we really want
to be involved in at an early stage. Last year
we expanded our team focused on Europe.
We're planning to set up teams in the US
and India this year, with the aim of making
this a global business line. There is a close
connection with F&A, especially when it
comes to areas such as bio-fuels. And an
increasing number of farmers are setting
up wind or solar farms on their land. The
greenhouse sector in the Netherlands is
investing quite heavily in the reuse of CO2
and energy efficiency.
"So there is a close connection with F&A.
In addition to the debt and mezzanine side
of the balance sheet, we also have a team in
Amsterdam that looks at taking equity stakes
in renewable energy and clean technology
projects. So we're building up a lot of
expertise in this field."
A "We are mostly an event-driven business,
so typically a cliënt will call on us when they
need to, say, refïnance their business. This is
a perfect opportunity to cross-sell products
from other Rl businesses. For instance, we've
been very successful with GFM products
such as derivatives and syndications.
And last year, we worked very successfully
with the M&A team, where they pitched
and arranged the buy-out and we arranged
the financing. I honestly believe that the
Group's increased focus will help us to
identify more cross-selling opportunities.
The revised strategy aligns us much more
to our core clients and markets, and
forces us to bundie our scarce resources
for propositions that provide real added
value to our clients and to the bank. We
also continue to invest in our relationships
with the member banks and bring our
professional products to their clients.
That's why we have dedicated Corporate
Finance Region teams offering leveraged
and acquisition finance, structured finance
and project finance on a scale suited to
our local bank clients."
A"Very much. Times of change are always
difficult, and like every bank we obviously
have a challenging period ahead of us. But
I really feel this is the right time for focus:
to focus on our core markets; focus on
aligning scarce resources, like solvency and
liquidity; and more importantly in aligning
our employees and shared knowledge.
Of course it will be a challenge, but more
importantly these changes will also create
opportunities for us. We will need to
identify these to succeed. It also provides
me with comfort that all businesses within
Corporate Finance have paid so much
attention to risk management over the
last year. We have a lot to do, in a very
difficult period for the markets and many
of our clients. But I enjoy hard work. I come
from a farming background. I have learnt
that a good farmer can't be distinguished
from a bad farmer during a summer with
cloudless skies and sunny weather. The
difference will only become clear in years
full of pouring rain and severe storms. It is
time for Rabobank to show its real farming
skills."
ISSUE 19 APRIL
THE WORD 21
