Julius Baer said that around 10 per cent of its staff is likely to be made redundant from the newly expanded group. Yesterday the bank annou...

Julius Baer said that around 10 per cent of its staff is likely to be made redundant from the newly expanded group. Yesterday the bank announced the purchase of SBC Wealth Management, the holding company for Zurich-based Ehinger & Armand von Ernst, Geneva-based Ferrier Lullin & Cie and Lugano-based Banco di Lugano as well as London-based GAM. This could see the departure of up to 350 jobs from the combined work force of more than 3,500. Yesterday, Julius Baer said savings would be made by the integration of the banks’ different back-office operations and staff “streamlining”. Redundancies would ultimately reach approximately 10 per cent of the combined workforce. In a statement the bank added: “This reduction over the next two years will partially be realized through early retirement agreements and natural attrition. As a result Julius Baer is expected to achieve annual cost savings of more than SFr100 million ($81.1 million) by 2008. There was some speculation that the job losses would affect some senior management at the Zurich-based bank. Yesterday, Julius Baer announced its new management structure, which saw Johannes de Gier, the head of SBC Wealth Management, becomes chief executive and president while Alex Widmer, the former head of Julius Baer, become head of private banking. Rolf Aeberli continues as chief financial officer. But David Solo, also from SBC, will be the new head of asset management within the enlarged group. No position was announced for Roman von Ah, the current head of asset management. Mr von Ah was only appointed to the position a little over a year ago and also serves on the group executive board.