Financial Results
Vontobel's Wealth Arm Logs Pre-Tax Profit Increase For H1 2017
The firm believes growth in the sector is due to its business in Switzerland, Italy and the emerging market industry.
Swiss firm Vontobel’s
wealth management arm reported a pre-tax profit increase of 12
per cent, a figure of SFr38.4 million ($40 million) in the first
half of the 2017 compared to SFr34.2 million in 1h16.
Clients entrusted SFr1.6 billion with the firm’s wealth
management business, which corresponded with an annualised growth
rate of 6.8 per cent in H1 2017.
As of 30 June, the wealth management arm had around SFr 50
billion in clients’ assets. Gross margin of the firm’s AuM
dipped by three bps in 1h17 to 66 from 69 bps in the first half
of 2016.
Overall, Vontobel saw its assets under management rise to
SFr146.5 billion in 1h17 from SFr127.8 billion in 1h16.
It also reported that its wealth management business “continued
to achieve organic growth that exceeded both the benchmark and
target range”. Vontobel believes growth in the sector was driven
by the Switzerland market, emerging markets and its business in
Italy.
The firm said: “Vontobel will strive to expand further in wealth
management going forward, with the focus essentially being on
generating growth organically. The dialogue with clients is to be
intensified further based on the new requirements resulting from
MiFID II, which have been comprehensively implemented at
Vontobel.
“As regards services for external asset managers, Vontobel will
continue to expand its business in Asia and also in the US, where
an additional location - New York - was opened in 2017.
However, Vontobel also continues to see opportunities to support
organic growth on a targeted basis through value-creating
acquisitions."