Bid to bankroll meat sales

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 4

Bid to bankroll meat sales

PA Auckland Banque Indosuez. the French-owned multi-national merchant bank, is courting the Meat Board with the aim of underwriting the board's new role as the sole marketer of mutton and lamb. Earlier this year, the board negotiated a SUSI2S million loan through Indosuez — its first offshore loan after failing to raise the money at home — and now it is looking for more money. • The vice-chairman and general manager of Banque Indosuez. Mr Antoin Jean-court-Galignani. said in Auckland that Indosuez was

ready to lead a syndicate, including Europe's three leading agricultural banks, to finance the Meat Board's new role. It was part of the bank's policy to fund export concerns. "We have a very precise idea of what we want to do. We want to find good companies. particularly companies which are engaged in overseas trade and offer them financial services,” he said. "We want to bring them new services or ideas on financial borrowing and financial exchange management. and we want to help them find new 7 markets." Mr Francois Lourtau, managing director of Indosuez New Zealand, Ltd, said the bank was keen to work with the board, but he declined to say how much the board was trying to borrow. “It is certainly not for us to quote a figure. The Meat Board itself has not yet reached a stage where it can agree on a figure." Indosuez's approach was that it could provide valuable export services, especially in the more difficult

Middle East markets, thiough its network of branches and agents. The chairman of Indosuez New Zealand. Ltd. Mr Brian Taiboys, said Indosuez offered exporters a valuable service. "Indosuez. because of its experience and because of its knowledge of the Middle East, is able to help potential

exporters by providing a bid bond and a performance bond," he said. Banque Indosuez. created by the merger in 1975 of Banque de I'lndochine and Banque de Suez, is nowowned by the French Government. The holding company was nationalised in one of the first acts of the Mitterrand Administration.