The Prey
7.2
De Prooi tells the story of the rise and fall of Dutch banker Rijkman Groenink and the fall of ABN AMRO Bank. It is based on the acclaimed novel by research journalist and professor Jeroen Smit. Groenink is a briljant banker. Most of his colleges see him as a financial wonderboy. In 2000 he is chosen as chairman of the Board of Directors of ABN AMRO Bank. In his inauguration speech he states that ABN AMRO will be within the top 5 of the worlds biggest operational banks and will focus only on shareholder value. To achieve this ambitious position, Rijkman starts to negotiate with other banks in order to be able to purchase them. Soon is it is very clear his professional strategy and ambition is not supported by his personal skills. Rijkman is not empathic and his sick jokes make more enemies then friends and cost the bank more money than he will admit. The young and beautiful Julia Bouwens is appointed as Rijkmans personal assistant. Although she has the right qualifications, her main goal is to make sure Rijkman is improving his social skills in order to be more successful in strategic business meetings. Although in 2005 business magazine Elsevier acclaims Groenink as 'Dutch businessman of the Year', the downfall of the bank has already set in. Big purchases cost the bank more than calculated. After a number of dramatic incidents, Rijkman has to do everything to prevent the bank from being split and sold. But he will not succeed. In 2007 a consortium of three banks, Fortis, RBS and Banco Santander, take over ABN AMRO and Rijkman Groenink has to leave. The Perfect Prey is not a series about the question of guilt or who is to blame for the fall of one of the biggest banks in the Netherlands. It is a psychological drama about the mechanisms of power at work in a era in which people believed money was everywhere and inexhaustible.
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