Zurich-based EFG Bank is setting up a new holding company called EFG International as part of its plans to grow its business. The move will ...

Zurich-based EFG Bank is setting up a new holding company called EFG International as part of its plans to grow its business. The move will also underpin the initial public offering, which the bank plans for October or November this year. The restructuring will see EFG International owning 100 per cent of EFG Bank and some of its subsidiaries, including those managing the bank's activities in the European Union under EFG Investment (Luxembourg) and the group's investment fund activities currently held directly by EFG Bank. The Zurich-based bank said it would offer 35 per cent of its shares in the IPO. The bank said it plans to use the funds raised by the IPO to make further acquisitions in private banking. The bank’s chief executive Lawrence Howell said earlier this year that the acquisitions could be in the Americas, UK, or in the rest of Europe. The private bank has added to its franchise in the past two years by acquiring the Gibraltar-based offshore banking operations of Banco Atlantico Gibraltar (a private banking subsidiary of Banco Sabadell) in 2004, and merging with Banque Edouard Constant in 2003. It also recently bought the private banking assets of Banco Atlantico in the Bahamas and Latin America from Banco Sabadell for $10 million. And in June acquired Dresdner Lateinamerika Financial Advisors, a Miami-based wealth manager with mainly Latin American clients. Separately, the Zurich-based bank recently had its credit ratings affirmed by Fitch, the international ratings organisation, which gave it a long-term rating of A-, a short-term rating of F2, an individual rating of B and a support rating of two.