Welcome to the February 2014 edition of NAB’s Corporate Finance Insights. With MORE to talk about and MORE to think about, our Corporate Finance Insights publication focuses on themes that are topical and relevant to our clients. As with all publications, we include interviews and opinions from key market participants to provide you with insights that can help with your strategic business decisions.

In this edition we are pleased to present a compilation of articles with an underlying theme around the Australian opportunity in the growing Asian region. We are very pleased to be able to share with you direct commercial experience from David Foote, CEO of Australian Country Choice, one of the largest vertically integrated supply chain organisations in the world, as he discusses the challenges and opportunities of expansion of supply of high quality meat into Asia. Adding to this discussion we have the benefit of an interview with Samuel Wibisono, General Manager Beef Division at Japfa Comfeed Indonesia that has recently made acquisitions of two top end cattle stations to supply Australian beef exports into a growing Indonesian market.

In addition to our client perspectives, some of our specialists have provided their insight into the major trends and opportunities in the Asian food bowl theory and raised discussions on a number of key challenges and opportunities. Including, in supplying our Australian grown produce into Asian markets we have examined the standard and availability of existing infrastructure.

Industry participants unanimously agreed that the quality of existing road and rail infrastructure and competition at ports is a major constraint on the movement of agri-food products within and out of the country. The quality of road and rail systems is critical when delivering perishable goods and linking into ‘just in time’ logistics timetables.

Additionally, ensuring that competition at ports from non-food related products does not result in slower loading times leading to rising shipping, quality issues or storage costs.

Finally, there’s a commentary on the recent Third Plenary Session of China’s Communist Party’s Central Committee. This four-day meeting provides an indication of how the country will be led for the next decade. The ensuing Communiqué – and more detailed Resolution – is the framework by which China’s leadership presents the long-term vision for the country’s development path and to this how Australia and our business banking customers can prosper.

We trust that you enjoy the latest instalment of our Corporate Finance Insights series.

For further analysis download the full report.

• Corporate Finance Insights – February 2014 (PDF 154KB)