Kas Bank : Interview Jean Francois and Sikko van Katwijk on strong asset servicing combination

Clients benefit from this strong international combination

Both CEOs are convinced that being dedicated assets servicers, with a good geographical fit, complementary knowledge and expertise, and common culture are all ingredients for a potential winning combination.

'Our clients are looking for a service provider with the scale of an international player and the intimacy and sense of partnership that comes with being a local player,' Sikko explains. 'By teaming up with CACEIS, we can offer our clients the best of both worlds - global expertise and size, plus local partnership. Additionally, our clients will benefit from a wider range of services. Previously, as KAS BANK, our possibilities were sometimes limited when we wanted to provide specialist services. For example, we were not able to offer private equity or real estate investment administration - an area that CACEIS specialises in. We will now be able to offer it.'

'Clients of KAS BANK will indeed benefit from our wide variety of services,' Jean-François confirms. 'But also more generally from our financial strength, the relationship with our parent company Crédit Agricole, the broad European network of the group and our integrated services based in Europe. We have a lot of ambition for KAS BANK as a branch of CACEIS, as well as for its clients.'

Preparations for integration

Sikko: 'We already kicked off a process to prepare for the moment that CACEIS officially becomes our owner. With teams from both companies, we are designing the integration in a way that we can truly act as a branch of CACEIS shortly after all formal steps have been taken. We're focusing on improving our client proposition as quickly as possible and we aim to finish the integration by the end of 2020. And although we believe all our clients will benefit from an integrated offering, we are also very conscious of the fact that they should not be impacted by our internal processes. We will ensure our day-to-day operations continue without disruption and we will continue to service our clients throughout this process.'

Jean-François is also very clear on the priorities of the integration: 'Clients are our first priority. We aim to extend the relationships with our client base and give all clients access to the broader service offering from day one.'

About CACEIS

CACEIS is the dedicated asset servicer of Crédit Agricole, one of the biggest in Europe. CACEIS currently holds €2.7 billion in assets under custody and €1.8 billion in assets under administration. We offer clients a broad range of services - from execution of clients' investment decisions to reporting. We function as a one-stop shop for all the needs of our investment manager clients. It is CACEIS's ambition to be one of the top two European players with coverage in Europe, North America and Asia.

Brief biographies

Jean-François Abadie
Jean-François Abadie has been the CEO of CACEIS since 2016 and has spent most of his career with the Crédit Agricole Group in various management roles. During his career, he spent time in France, Spain, London and Luxembourg.

Sikko van Katwijk
Sikko van Katwijkstarted his career at KAS BANK in 1989 and in 2001 made a side step to Citigroup in Amsterdam and London. He re-joined KAS BANK in 2009 as member of the Management Board and was appointed Chairman of the Management Board in 2014.

DISCLAIMER

The transaction is pending regulatory approval. On 17th May 2019, the Offer Memorandum was submitted by CACEIS to the AFM.

Want to know more about the intended public offer? Please click here.