Bank Sarasin reported a net profit of SFr55 million ($43,1 million) in the first half of 2005, a 37 per cent year-on-year rise. The bank als...

Bank Sarasin reported a net profit of SFr55 million ($43,1 million) in the first half of 2005, a 37 per cent year-on-year rise. The bank also announced that its chief executive Peter Merian will step down once a successor is found, although he will assume a role on the board of directors. Assets under management rose by SFr4 billion to SFr57.8 billion, a 7 per cent rise on the end 2004 figure. But net new money came in at just SFr118 million in the first half, which Sarasin said “fell short of our expectations”. “Despite the successful acquisition of private clients in both on- and off-shore markets, the loss of a few major private banking clients led to a net outflow of SFr51 million and thus to this overall unsatisfactory figure in the private banking,” said Peter Merian in a results statement. Assets managed for institutional clients, in contrast, showed an increase of almost SFr417 million. Sarasin said that with regards to investment fund assets, the loss of one large private label client resulted in a net outflow of SFr249 million. The bank said operating expenses rose by 7 per cent to SFr159 million compared to last year. The total number of employees declined somewhat to 1,132 since the beginning of the year “in the wake of natural attrition”. As earlier reported, Sarasin is in the process of making some structural changes on how the bank is run. The number of business divisions has been reduced from seven to four. “The heads of the individual business divisions have been given considerably more personal responsibility under the new delegation of competencies,” the bank said in a statement. “Personal entrepreneurial responsibility and accountability for operating performance have generally been strengthened in the new line management structure.”