We all saw the hard
work we put into this
deal is an investment
in the futureï
Ralph Ramdhani, Head of the International
Desk Australia and New Zealand
RIGHT TIME
company and we expect a lot more business from them in the
future," Ramdhani says.
But why was RAGT willing to cover 100 percent of the risk for a
company in which it has a minority stake? For one thing, Sinescu says,
RAGT receives royalties from seeds sold in Australia and New Zealand.
RAGT can also sell seeds produced in the southern hemisphere
contra-seasonally in Europe, giving it a big edge on its rivals. So RAGT
was very pleased to get this deal done. "We're already set to meet
up with the board and shareholders for a global presentation on
the seed sector with Food and Agribusiness Research and an M&A
pitch. And we're also in talks with senior management for a potential
reorganisation of the RAGT business and a related EUR 70 million club
deal fïnancing. So it looks like we've won a new wholesale cliënt for
the Paris office by meeting our strategie goal of serving the Dutch
member banks and their clients," Sinescu says.
Of course, the deal was far from straightforward and, even with an
international network, it involved months of hard work. The 10-hour
time difference between Europe and New Zealand and the language
differences led to delays and sometimes miscommunications
between RAGT and Seed Force, and keeping the deal team closely
aligned and informed were the main challenges. "But everyone
involved was really determined to get this deal done. I think we all
saw it as an investment in the future," Ramdhani says.
Their biggest learning curve, however, was simply finding out about
the different internal processes, banking issues and technicalities
in the different Rl countries. It was a rather complicated structure
for quite a small deal, and Sinescu says he had no idea how things
worked in Australia and New Zealand. "Well, none of us really knew
each other at all when this all started," Van der Sterren adds. "But now
we've built up a relationship of trust across the Rl businesses, and
with three clients. Certainly, Joordens was deeply impressed with
what we managed to do, and with how the Venlo office kept them
up to date on what was happening. The CEO of Rabobank Venlo,
Dick Hak, recently spent a month with Rabobank Australia and New
Zealand and made a courtesy visit to Seed Force in New Zealand
emphasising our global commitment. That trust and the knowledge
we've all built up, both across our own businesses and with our
clients, are going to be a huge help in the future," Van der Sterren
says.
ISSUE 28
Rl WORLD
