The 'van der Linden' family: Views from the RMA office

The RMA Group is a private diversified group operating predominantly in frontier markets in SE Asia, C Asia and Africa. The company's main activity is automotive related but also covers heavy equipment, power generation, leasing/financing, mechanical & engineering contracting, and food retail (including airport retail). Generally the group goes into markets early when the investment opportunities are still limited but the economic outlook is improving and the government is starting to open up its market to foreign investment. At this stage competition is nonexistent and there is an opportunity to dominate business sectors. We like being the big fish in the small pond. Once we're in the market we will typically expand and diversify our activities as the country develops. This strategy sometimes works (i.e. Cambodia and Laos entered in the mid 90's) but can also fail (Myanmar in the late 90's). The good thing is that failing is not that expensive.

It has been 3 years that i've been working for the RMA Group and the growth has been spectacular. From a company of about 1,500 people when I joined it it now closer to 5,000. I'm responsible for the group's Merger and Acquisition activity and work closely with the CEO/Founder. Although we generally grow organically there has been a constant stream of deals that we like to pick up if we can get them at an attractive price and if they fit the portfolio of activities and geographies.

This work has taken me to some challenging places and interesting opportunities land on my desk daily. The last time I saw so much opportunity was in my San Francisco days around the year 2000. It's the mindset I like ... charging ahead with a very entrepreneurial mindset at the edge of what the company operations can handle ... like Mario Andretti once said (F1 Driver) "if everything is under control you're not driving fast enough".