During this period, even the healthiest of companies
can find their resilience tested. For some, capital
constraints and a declining market can push otherwise
well-run and solid organisations into serious financial
difficulties. Within the international network of Rabobank
International, clients facing such circumstances are
managed by Global Special Asset Management (GSAM),
which provides intensive support to try and return
the business to full strength.
Perhaps we shouldn't talk about GSAM,
but rather SAM, says Fred Weenig,
head of Special Asset Management
for the Rabobank group. "Although
Global Special Asset Management is
the official title of the unit based in
Utrecht, Specialised Asset Management
better describes the role we play in the
bank, and the role each of our units
has abroad. For example, in New York
we have a SAM unit that covers the
Americas, while in Hong Kong we have
a SAM unit covering Asia, and so on."
As a specialised department, SAM works
with clients that are transferred from
other regular departments within the
bank. Most of these clients face liquidity
constraints. "We work with companies
where there is doubt about their future,"
says Weenig, "be it long-term or short
term doubt. And when we talk about
long-term, the horizon could be three
to four years, while short-term could be
tomorrow, literally. Essentially, if we have
doubts about the liquidity or viability
of a company, it will be transferred to
our department and we will take over
the decision-making process in terms
of the risk we run on that cliënt, and
try to manoeuvre them, and thereby
ourselves, in the right direction."
Although a major factor in this process
is reducing the bank's risk and exposure,
a critical element is maintaining the
relationship with the dient and doing
everything possible to return them
to a healthy state of business, says
Arthur Staal, Global Head of GSAM for
Rabobank International. "When we say
'reduce the risk', this doesn't always
mean we reduce the credit facility
available to the cliënt," he says. "What
we primarily want to do is improve the
quality of the credit, which could also
mean that we increase the amount
of money at stake, as long as we are
convinced that the quality of the
company, and therefore the quality
of the credit, also improves.
"Because we're a long-term relationship
bank, we're not interested in simply
reducing the credit from, say, EUR 100
million to EUR 50 million and saying
we've done a good job, and then
discovering that the last 50 million has
gone completely and we have to write
issue 2i THE WORD
