Business case:
Agro-Farma
Rabobank's advantages
Juan Manuel Fernandez
(1966) is Managing Director
and Head of M&A for Latin
America and Global M&A
Head for Global Animal
Protein. He is a member of
the Executive Committee
of the Rabobank-Rothschild
Cooperation. Before moving
to Rabobank in 2007, he held
senior posts at JP Morgan
Co and Credit Suisse. He
holds a degree in Economics
from the InstitutoTecnologi-
co Autonomo de Mexico and
an MBA degree from Harvard
Business School.
investors looking at grain handiers, commodity traders,
basic processors and so on.
New multinationals are emerging from developing countries,
too. These include companies such as JBS in Brazil; COFCO and
Bright Food in China; Bimbo and Lala in Mexico; Pacific Andes
and Noble Group in Plong Kong; and Tata, United Phosphorus
and Shree Renuka in India. Such growth oriented companies
can be looking to expand to different markets, orto gain
production knowledge, marketing expertise and Western
brands to bring to their own domestic markets. Or all of
the above. And, of course, Western fïrms are themselves
looking for opportunities in the emerging markets. So a well-
informed M&A team is vital.
Durand says: 'These trends reinforce the need for both a
strong origination capacity globally and a strong capability
locally to implement and execute transactions. This is what we
are focusing on: to originate globally and execute locally."
Fernandez likens it to an Olympic rowing race: "We are
competing against Olympic players. So we have to be great
athletes, but to be at the front we also need to be rowing in
sync in all the different ways we touch our clients. If we
don't, there will be many boats ahead of us. The
competitive environment is brutal, so we have to row
together to win."
Rabobank is well placed to respond to these trends. It is rare
for a bank to combine global presence with such strong sector
expertise. Sujan says: "Our stability, brand and triple A rating all
US-based Agro-Farma is a dairy manufacturer that produces
America's number one yoghurt brand, Chobani, but its ambition
is to be the world's leading Greek-style yoghurt company.
Thanks to M&A advice from Rabobank and cross-border
teamwork, Agro-Farma moved a step closer to that goal with
the acquisition of Bead Foods, an Australian dairy producer
and distributor to Australian and South-East Asian markets.
The transaction relied on close cooperation between
Rabobank's teams in New York and Sydney. In addition to
its M&A involvement, the bank played a significant role in
Agro-Farma's financing facility, which made it a very profitable
transaction for Rabobank.
Head of Asia-Pacific M&A Ronil Sujan says: "Good wins like
this show people the merits of a global approach to M&A.
The cliënt was from North America and the execution was
done by the Australian team. It was an excellent, combined
team effort between US and Australia."
CREEK Yl
djedeny
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ISSUE 29 OCTOBER 2011 RI WORLD
