Rabo Bank has entered into this alliance in an advisory capacity to assess, along with IDFC possible commercially viable projects for the agricultural industry in India.
Rabo Bank is a Dutch bank with over US $ 280 million in assets focusing on the food and agriculture business. Said Rik van Slingelandt, chairman, managing board, Rabo Bank," The food and agricultural sector has tremendous potential but needs international practices that we at Rabo Bank can bring in."
The bank will perform in a host of advisory services and according to Rana Kapoor, managing director, Rabo India, "If the projects merits that the bank invest in it, the bank will decide to so ."
This agreement will help synergising initiatives in infrastructure as well as their complementary strengths in their respective fields. The alliance will give advice and financial aid to projects in integrated transports and logistics, dedicated ports which will have special facilities for food items such as fresh fruit and sea food, high technology warehousing and commodity exchanges and auction systems. Besides this, there will value-added centers and cold chain networks.
Speaking at the press conference , managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Naseer Monjee, "The projects that the bank will advise will have to commercially viable and once assessed , the bank may even arrange for financiers or sponsors for the initiative."
The joint alliance will start functioning from the following week, with a head from each party and people from the industry. "We will be concentrating initially on the Western belt, namely Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka with considering projects," said Rana Kapoor.
More From This Section
The primary reason for this alliance according to IDFC CEO, is to reduce post harvest losses and create for additional storage capacity. The government of India has approved the ministry's public distribution and consumer affairs proposal to grant "infrastructure status" to bulk handling of food grains.