M and A
Reyl Agrees To Sell Investment House Stake To Italian Bank

Here is another example of the M&A carousel that has been spinning in Europe's private banking sector this year.
Geneva-headquartered Reyl & Cie Holding, the private bank and
financial group, has entered a binding agreement to sell its 45
per cent stake in RAM Active
Investments to Italy’s Mediobanca, fitting with a
strategy by the Swiss firm to focus more on core wealth
management and a growing corporate advisory line. When combined
with the sales of other shareholders in the firm, the total stake
sold to Mediobanca was 69 per cent.
As a historical provider of seed money for RAM AI, Reyl will keep
a 7.5 per cent stake in RAM AI and continue to be the preferred
partner and anchor investor in the firm’s products, Reyl said in a statement
yesterday.
RAM AI’s partners, Thomas de Saint-Seine, Maxime Botti and
Emmanuel Hauptmann will retain significant stakes in RAM and will
remain committed to its development for at least the next 10
years, the bank said.
Founded in 2007, RAM AI is an active and alternative asset
manager offering a range of fundamental systematic equity and
tactical fixed-income funds to an array of professional and
institutional investors. As of 31 October 2017, RAM AI managed
assets of $4.9 billion across 14 funds. (For comparison, Reyl
oversees SFr15 billion in AuM ($15.3 billion)).
“This partial exit fits well within REYL Group’s strategic plan.
It will allow it to deploy significant capital in a number of key
areas, including the implementation of an ambitious digital
strategy around its wealth management unit and the build-up of
its fast-growing corporate advisory and unlisted asset management
franchises,” François Reyl, managing director of Reyl Holding,
said.
“It [the transaction] will also bring RAM AI several clear
benefits, including long term seeding commitments across its
product range and a larger distribution network within the EU,
allowing it to achieve new milestones in its expansion.”
The transaction is subject to customary conditions, including
approval from the relevant regulatory authorities, and is
expected to close in the first half of 2018. Spencer House
Partners LLP acted as financial advisors to RAM AI and the REYL
Group in the context of this transaction.
Mediobanca said it is the “ideal institutional partner” because
of a “strong cultural fit and solid foundation for future
growth”.
The transaction is part of a series of merger and acquisition
deals involving private banking houses in Europe. A deal that
involved the sale of an Italian business, rather than that of an
Italian firm making a purchase, happened in early November when
Indosuez
Wealth Management, the global wealth management brand of
Crédit Agricole Group, agreed to by more than two-thirds (67.67
per cent) of Italian wealth management firm Banca Leonardo.
Eventually, the group may own all of the Italian firm. The deal
added €5.9 billion ($6.82 billion) of assets under management,
based on figures as of 30 June this year.
Ray Soudah, founder of corporate advisory firm
MilleniumAssociates, has told this publication that the next
12 months could see one of the big players in wealth management
vanish as a result of industry consolidation - a trend that is
far from complete - and cost-cutting will intensify.