ACT TOGETHER
The Seed Force fïnancing deal Rabobank
fïnalised in December 2010, after five months
of hard work across four countries and
involving no fewer than three companies,
is a perfect illustration of the international
collaboration Rabobank believes is key
to achieving its strategie goals.
26 issue 28 Rl WORLD
RIGHT PLACE,
When Dutch seed company Joordens approached Ed van der
Sterren, Deputy Director Rabobank Venlo, in the summer of
2010 about the problems its rapidly growing 40 percent owned
subsidiary Seed Force was having raising fïnancing in New Zealand,
Van der Sterren knew immediately who to contact. "By incredible
chance, l'd recently read an article on the Rabobank website
introducing Sydney-based Ralph Ramdhani as the head of the
International Desk for Australia and New Zealand. The desk was
pretty new at the time, so the timing was perfect."
Joordens contacted Ramdhani immediately and told him about
the problems Seed Force was having with the local banks in New
Zealand. None of them was willing or capable of structuring the
fïnancing with a corporate guarantee issued by Joordens' French
parent company, RAGT. Ramdhani: "One of the primary roles of the
International Desks is to help our Dutch member banks' clients, so
it was a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the huge advantage of
our international network. I immediately thought the best thing we
could do was go right to the source and contact RAGT itself through
our Paris office. You could say my role was to connect the dots and
initiate a suitable international fïnancing structure - providing links
between New Zealand, Australia, France and the Netherlands."
Robert Sinescu, Head of Loan Products Group Rabobank Paris, then
picked up the ball and contacted RAGT. "We'd been looking to do
business with RAGT for quite a while, so this was a great opportunity
to get our foot in the door. In the end, Rl New Zealand provided
EUR 6.5 million in fïnancing for Seed Force in New Zealand and
Australia under a full credit allocation from Rabobank Paris. RAGT then
counter-guaranteed our commitment in Paris through a first demand
guarantee, basically transferring 100 percent of the Seed Force risk
from Australia to RAGT in France. And the Paris office managed the
RAGT credit approval with the European Credit Committee and KRM
Utrecht," Sinescu says.
Meanwhile, De Lage Landen (DLL) had already arranged a lease
facility that Seed Force needed to expand the fleet of cars for its
rapidly growing salesforce. This certainly helped Rl in New Zealand to
cement its relationship with the company. The Seed Force Managing
Director was already a rural banking customer at RI's Ashburton
branch, but now he knows that Rabobank can offer a lot more
than the local banks in New Zealand. "Seed Force is a fast-growing
