The Switzerland-headquartered firm is stepping up its business in Germany.

Zurich-listed Vontobel has brought over five advisors to its teams in Germany, hiring four of them from Sal. Oppenheim in Munich – now a part of Deutsche Bank –  and one person from Oddo-BHF Bank in Hamburg.

The hires mean that the German team has grown to more than 20 asset managers, Vontobel said.

Victor Lindner and Thomas Riecken, who previously worked for Sal Oppenheim at the same location, are joining the Munich-based Vontobel team of asset managers in July. Doris Lemke and Olaf Bauermeister, who are also switching from Sal. Oppenheim in Munich to Vontobel, will follow in October this year. Asset management expert Stella C Streckwall joined the Hamburg team from Oddo-BHF Bank in April. 

The moves follow other developments at Vontobel. In late May, Raiffeisen Switzerland sold Notenstein La Roche Private Bank to Vontobel for about SFr700 million ($706 million). At the time of that announcement, Vontobel said it had set itself the target of achieving organic net new money growth of 4-6 per cent a year up to 2020, with growth of more than 10 per cent targeted in the Swiss home market and selected others.

The German market is attracting attention. Recently, one of the wealth chiefs at BNP Paribas said that the French firm plans acquisitions in Germany. With Deutsche Bank battling to restore its fortunes, and Commerzbank recovering from its bailout phase a decade ago, the market is deemed ripe for development. Foreign players in the market include HSBC (HSBC Trinkaus) and ABN AMRO (Bethmann Bank AG), and there is a large group of small private banking houses, many of them dating back centuries. (See a profile of Germany's wealth market here.)

The new arrivals
Lemke has been responsible for business at the Munich branch office of Sal. Oppenheim since 2012 as managing director. As a qualified bank clerk with additional loan training, she gained extensive experience with wealthy clients at Dresdner Bank, where her most recent position involved the care of wealthy clients at the Frankfurt branch office, before she switched to Sal. Oppenheim in 2008. Lemke will report to Thomas Fischer as a member of the Munich executive board.

Bauermeister has been at Sal. Oppenheim since 2006, where he was most recently a client advisor for private asset management in the Munich branch office. He has over 20 years of experience in banking activities. 

Lindner, who joined Sal. Oppenheim in Munich in 2007, was most recently employed as vice president in private asset management at the Deutsche Bank subsidiary. Before that, the qualified bank clerk and business manager advised wealthy private clients at Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers in Munich.

Riecken began his career with Deutsche Bank at the end of the 1980s. With more than 20 years of experience advising wealthy private clients and as a securities specialist, positions have included M M Warbug, Delbrück & Co., and Merck Finck & Co. At Sal. Oppenheim in Munich, he has spent the last six years working as a senior portfolio manager for individual mandates.

Streckwall joined Vontobel from Oddo-BHF Bank, where she had advised wealthy clients from northern Germany as a relationship manager and company officer in Hamburg since 2007.