Keystone-SDA
Wealth manager Julius Bär has signed a contract to cede his activities in Brazil, Julius Baer Brasil Gestão de Patrimônio e Consultoria de Valores Mobiliários, to Banco BTG Pactual for 615 million reais, or 91 million francs.
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January 7, 2025 – 07:48
(Keystone-ATS) The Zurich establishment will continue to serve its Brazilian customers from other regions where the group is present, it said Tuesday in a press release. The bank is in fact established in particular in Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Spain.
In Brazil, Julius Bär currently has branches in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro where it has a wealthy to very wealthy clientele. At the end of November 2024, the company had 61 billion reais (9 billion francs) in assets under management.
The operation, to be closed by the end of March, should generate a contribution of 30 basis points to the bank’s core capital ratio (CET1). The latter stood at 16.7% at the end of the first ten months of 2024.
New boss
The Brazilian media O Globo reported the information on Monday evening, but placed the amount of the transaction at around 1 billion reais, or around 150 million francs.
Julius Bär is in the midst of an overhaul of its activities, after the debacle linked to the Signa affair. In July 2024, the bank raised its gross savings target for the current strategic cycle to 145 million francs, compared to 120 million previously. The savings plan entails the elimination of 250 positions and must be fully effective by the end of 2025.
These announcements come as the Swiss Stefan Bollinger will take charge of the Zurich establishment on Thursday. Since the departure in February 2024 of Philipp Rickenbacher, who left in the wake of the losses suffered in the Signa affair, the current deputy general director Nic Dreckmann has taken over in the interim.
