Julius Baer has launched a new business in Austria and plans to target the country’s wealthy. Julius Baer Investment Advisory will offer...

Julius Baer has launched a new business in Austria and plans to target the country’s wealthy. Julius Baer Investment Advisory will offer clients a range of services and products in private banking and advisory services for institutional asset managers. “The Austrian economy is currently one of the most dynamic in Western Europe. The resulting above-average increase in wealth provides numerous attractive opportunities for an internationally-oriented asset manager like Julius Baer,” said Erich Gröger, managing director of Julius Baer Investment Advisory, in a statement. Julius Baer’s Austrian venture has launched on the back of strong economic and wealth growth in the central European economy. The Zurich-based bank quoted research in Merrill Lynch’s World Wealth Report, which said the number of private investors in Austria with liquid financial assets of more than $1 million rose by 5.1 per cent in 2004 to 63,300. In recent years the assets of private households have also risen steadily and at the end of 2005 represented a market value of €356 billion, according to Austrian National Bank estimates.