The latest mergers, acquisitions and other corporate actions in the wealth management sector.

J Stern & Co
Independent asset manager J Stern & Co has completed the previously-announced combination of its Swiss subsidiary, J Stern & Co (Switzerland) AG, with Geneva-based asset manager bvo Capital SA.

“Further to approval by FINMA, the combination with bvo is an exciting moment for our clients and both of our firms,” Jérôme Stern, managing partner and CEO of J Stern & Co, said in a statement today.

“We are delighted to partner with Cédric and Laurent to serve their clients for the long-term in the same aligned manner as we have been doing since the formation of J Stern & Co in 2012. The combination builds on a common investment philosophy of long-term investing in quality equities, based on our own research, reinforcing our strengths in active management of concentrated global equities.”

The deal, for an undisclosed amount, was originally announced in late July this year. At the time, J Stern & Co said the transaction would lift its assets to more than $2.8 billion.

J Stern & Co (Switzerland) AG is maintaining its existing Zurich office while establishing a stronger presence in Geneva through the former bvo capital office, where Coignard and bvo capital partner, Laurent Pallanca, are based.

J Stern & Co has offices in London, New York, Zurich and Malta. It is best known for its World Stars Global Equity Fund as well as its Emerging Market Debt Stars Fund and US Stars Equity Fund. bvo capital, which was founded in 2021, specialises in concentrated global equity investing. Clients invest through the FiftySix Equity Fund (UCITS) and separately managed accounts. 

History
The J Stern & Co business is an example of the lengthy history to be found in European and international wealth management. The firm, which oversees assets for the 200-year-old Stern dynasty, traces its origins to a wine merchant family which transformed its business into a bank in 1805 on the counsel of their neighbours, the Rothschild family, who had gone through that transition a few years earlier (coincidentally, the same year that Swiss private bank Pictet was founded). The family flourished, operating across Europe. During the Second World War, the French branch of the family represented by J Stern & Co fled to New York in 1940.

Whilst in New York, Maurice Stern created an investment strategy of long-term quality stock picking. In 1946, he returned to Paris to rebuild the banking business in Europe, including an asset management business. After being run for two generations, the business, called Banque Stern, was sold in 1988 to Swiss Bank Corporation (now known as UBS). The family created a family office in Geneva for the Stern family. J Stern & Co was founded in London in 2012. In 2023, it opened a New York office and an office in Malta in 2021.