‘Growth Opportunities in the UK’
- United Kingdom
March 11th 2021 - ABN AMRO UK International Desk co-hosted a webinar for clients and prospects looking to grow their business by investing or expanding their existing investment in the UK. The event was co-hosted by the UK Ambassador to the Netherlands, Joanna Roper, the Country Director Netherlands for the UK Department for International Trade (‘DIT’), Simon Banham and ABN AMRO Chief Economist, Sandra Phlippen. The 40 companies in attendance were a mixture of existing ABN AMRO UK clients, prospects and other recognised fast growing Dutch companies (Gazellen) and our discussions focussed on how ABN AMRO Bank and the DIT can help clients achieve their goals in the UK.
The Speakers:
The webinar programme was highlighted by informative presentations by:
Joanna Roper, British Ambassador, outlined the benefits of investing in the world’s 5th largest economy. Joanna’s presentation focused on 3 key topics: The UK’s Covid response and vaccination progress, the impacts and future of Brexit and the UK Government’s Build Back Better strategy, particularly regarding sustainable initiatives and COP26.
Simon Banham, Country Director of the UK Department of International Trade explained how DIT can assist businesses in commencing or increasing their footprint in the UK. The DIT provide new entrants of all sizes to the UK market advice on potential location/premises selection, legal support and assistance with network building. ABN AMRO UK and DIT collaborate and refer clients as and when there is potential to grow our respective propositions.
Sandra Phlippen, Chief Economist ABN AMRO, provided an insight into the current and expected future state of the UK economy without holding back any punches around the effects of Brexit and Coivd. However Sandra emphasised the speed and success of the UK vaccination drive leaves the UK with strong upside potential relative to Europe, and;
Peter Hogg, UK Cities Director at Arcadis who presented the history of Arcadis in the UK. From entering the market in a difficult economic environment in 2008, to a UK franchise with annual turnover exceed £400m and 4,000 employees. Peter further emphasised Arcadis commitment to the UK and detailed their next 3 year investment cycle where they plan to grow by a further 400 employees.
The Audience:
This event was planned to pitch to the ‘Gazellen’ (Gazelles) companies. The Gazelles are a group of c. 300 fast growing companies in the Netherlands who are selected annually by the editors of Het Financieele Dagblad (FD). Gazellen companies can range from developing businesses to those in the mid-cap corporate space and therefore fall directly in the target range for ABN AMRO Commercial Banking. We also contacted a broad range of existing clients who have recently moved across to AAB in the UK.
Outcomes and Next Steps:
This well attended event was a great opportunity to increase the exposure and understanding of ABN AMRO’s UK presence and capability. Around half of all attendees are not currently customers of the bank so the AAB staff in attendance now have some good prospects to chase. Over the coming months we will be meeting with these potential clients to determine the scale of opportunity for the bank. If you’d like to be involved, please reach out.
Who to contact:
For any additional information on the event and how you can be involved in building relationships with the companies who attended or indeed the UK DIT, please contact David Fauls, Relationship Director UK International Desk (david.fauls@uk.abnamro.com).Note: as the event was conducted virtually, these photos are from a previous event!