Business
se s xit loes17, e r G l a olls on Jun ot e n t i
In number
s
P ep heads to th As Greece the losses following ro of estimates reek exit from the eu nt. lG u a o ti m n te to o e p u a tin rexit,” con zone, a “G at stake? • AG is How much
Financial services
DUTCH TREAT
re e k re to Gbt u s o p x E ig n de sovere
A Luxembourg corporate trust firm swallows a big competitor in the Netherlands.
on c59.6 billi c56 billion on c4 3.7 billi c22 billion
on c19.8 billi
c4.5 billion on c30.7 billi 10
n German state n European Central Bank n French state n French banks
50
40
60
n IMF n German banks Other banks in n the euro zone
Luc Deflorenne
0
30
20
ate to p r i v e r u s o E xp ebt G re e k d on c29.4 billi c6.4 billion c4.7 billion on c14.3 billi 10
0
30
20
n French banks n UK banks
50
40
60
n German banks Other international n banks
e r e to t h E xp o s u n t r a l b a n k e G re e k c on c77.1 billi on c30.2 billi on c22.7 billi 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
French central bank n Other 15 euro zone n German central central banks n bank
Sources: Berenberg Bank, Bank of International Settlements, Eurogroup, JP Morgan, The Economist, and the Université Catholique de Lille’s IESEG School of Management.
36 - delano - June 2012
80
Carlo Schlesser and Serge Krancenblum: adding to the firm’s global flavour
Acquisitions involving Luxembourg companies stereotypically involve a foreign player announcing its new subsidiary in the Grand Duchy. But one recent deal has gone the other way: SGG, one of the Luxembourg’s major corporate and fund administration services providers, bought out Dutch counterpart ANT earlier this year. While 118-year old ANT had seen many suitors come and go, none were able to convince the 200 shareholders--members of the founding Amsterdam and Rotterdam families--to sell their stakes, until SGG came calling. Being a firm from the Grand Duchy was a definite advantage in convincing the families, says CEO Serge Krancenblum. “They were convinced they had to team up with a Luxembourg firm because their clients, and our clients, both have needs on both sides of the border.” The deal expands SGG’s global reach rather than its line-up of services, he explains. Both corporate trust firms have long focused on supporting private equity
and real estate funds, multinationals and high net worth families. While SGG started a small Dutch branch in 2006 and acquired boutique provider IMFC in 2011, the addition of ANT means the group now has 230 staff in the Netherlands, almost as many as its 250 in Luxembourg. In addition, “they have strong operations in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and also in the Caribbean and we were not there,” Krancenblum notes. Moreover, SGG is integrating ANT executives into its global management team. For example, the head of ANT’s Rotterdam office, André Nagelmaker, is now SGG’s international business development chief, and former ANT director Adrie Beerepoot is now group CFO. But Krancenblum says SGG has no appetite to devour another firm in the near term. “If we are going to invest in another market, we want to be able to service the same kind of clients” that the firm has today. So “we won’t start offices and put a flag everywhere” if it means a chain AG of branches “with just two people.”