Reports
Julius Baer's AuM Scale Fresh Heights; Gross Margin Dips
Assets under management at the Swiss bank rose to a new high, benefiting from the effects of market moves, inflows and recent acquisitions.
Julius Baer's assets under management hit a record SFR327
billion ($326.1 billion) at the end of October, a rise of 9 per
cent over the 10-month period from the end of 2015, it said
today.
The rise was propelled in part by net new money, positive market
performance and the consolidation of Kairos Investment Management
(in April), with almost SFr9 billion of AuM, and the acquisition
in July of Commerzbank International Luxmbourg, with almost SFr3
billion.
These positive effects were partly outweighed by negative
currency effects, mainly because of the weakening of sterling and
the dollar against the Swiss franc, the Zurich-listed firm said
in a statement.
Net new money in the year to-date was, on an annualised basis,
close to 4 per cent. With the exception of Latin America, all
regions have realised net inflows so far this year. Based
on relationship manager hiring and its net inflows
outlook, the firm expects net new money to improve into the 4-6
per cent target range in 2017.
At the end of October, the number of RMs had grown to 1,376, a
year-to-date net increase of 159. Of these, 115 RMs
were added through recruitment and 44 were
added through the acquisitions of Kairos and CISAL.
Despite a slight improvement in Asia, overall client trading
volumes declined markedly in the four months from the end of
June. As a consequence, the gross margin for the first ten months
declined to just over 91 basis points. This compares to just
below 95 basis points in the first half of the year.
Despite the decline in gross margin since the end of June, Julius
Baer said it is confident that its cost management will help
achieve a cost/income ratio for the current financial year inside
the 68-69 per cent guidance range provided earlier this year.
This would assume no significant deterioration in market
conditions in the last two months of 2016.
Julius Baer Group’s detailed financial results for 2016 will be
published on 1 February 2017.
