On April 10, Dakang Food & Agriculture (“Dakang”) received, in its headquarter in Shanghai, a visit of senior executives from Rabobank. The delegation led by Mr. Jan van Nieuwenhuizen (Executive Board Member of the Bank), composed by Mr. Soh Hangkwang (Vice Chairman&Asia Head of Global Corporate Clients) and Mr. Bjorn Stibbe (Rabobank CEO in China).
The delegation was received by Mr. Ge Junjie (Chairman of the Board of Dakang) accompanied by Mr. Richard Fan, PC Teoh (General Manager of Dakang's international business), Mr. Drummond Xia (Deputy CFO of Dakang) Mr. James Yang (Head of Dakang’s grain trading area).
During the meeting, Mr. Ge Junjie presented Dakang's business plans and the Group's visions of expanding into a provider of value-added products and services in a wholesome protein supply chain, a global agriculture and food resources integrator, as well as a reliable and trusted supplier of nutritional solutions. Mr. Ge also detailed further development plans into the grain trade and the animal protein industries.
A global financial institution specialized in agribusiness and known as one of the safest banks in the world, Rabobank has long been a partner of Belagrícola and Fiagril in Brazil, both companies acquired by Dakang. Dakang would like to strengthen this cooperation with the Bank.
Both parties discussed and reached a preliminary consensus on topics such as providing further financial supports, assisting the Group in strategic planning and exploring mergers and acquisitions opportunities in the food and agriculture sectors.
Mr. Ge Junjie said that a more in-depth partnership with Rabobank is beneficial to the internationalization of Dakang, and provides support and stability to operations that integrate the best agrifood resources around the world. “Apart from providing strong financial support, Rabobank differentiates itself from other financial institutions by offering in-depth industry trend analysis and advice to help its valued clients on strategic positioning and development planning” added Mr. Ge.
During the event, Mr. Ge suggested Dakang forms a strategic partnership with Rabobank, to enable a deeper cooperation with the Rabobank in credit financing, investment banking and other financial advisory, in helping Dakang to become an important and relevant player of the international grain trade and food industry. Mr. Ge also requested that the Bank gives more credit support to Dakang’s grain trading platform, namely Fiagril and Belagrícola in Brazil. Mr. Ge would also like to create a communication mechanism with Rabobank to implement such partnership swiftly. He believes it will establish a good demonstration of cooperation between Chinese private company and a professional financial institution.
Mr. Jan van Nieuwenhuizen appreciated the strategy and growth roadmap of Dakang and endorsed the proposal for a strategic partnership between the two sides.
"Rabobank is willing to deepen our cooperation with Dakang," said the Executive Board Member, who agreed to accelerate the process to give more support to Dakang, Fiagril and Belagrícola.
During the visit, the bank's investment banking team shared several success stories, business opportunities and latest development in the global animal protein market.