LGT Capital Partners, the Switzerland-headquartered investment firm,  has completed its merger with LGT Capital Management.

LGT Capital Partners, the Switzerland-headquartered investment firm, has completed its merger with LGT Capital Management.

LGT's asset management business will operate under the name LGT Capital Partners, and it will be regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA.

LGT Capital Management will be fully integrated as of 1 June 2014, increasing its assets under management to above $50 billion, LGT said in a statement.

“LGT's asset management businesses were previously organised in two separate units. However, the boundaries between specialised traditional and alternative asset classes have become increasingly blurred in recent years. Bringing these activities together under one management team will enable us to optimise our investment offering, and to deliver services to our clients from a single source. We will thus be ideally positioned in the alternative investments market, which is enjoying strong growth worldwide,” said Roberto Paganoni, chief executive of LGT Capital Partners.

Such a deal adds to a run of mergers, acquisitions and restructurings affecting the Swiss banking industry in recent years, as the country adapts to pressures on its decades-old bank secrecy laws, as well as due to the need for economies of scale in a higher-cost environment.

LGT Capital Partners is an alternative investment specialist with over $50 billion in assets under management and more than 400 institutional clients. Headquartered in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland, the firm has offices in New York, Dublin, London, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Vaduz, Dubai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo.