The firm, rebranded this year following a management buyout, has announced a change at the top.

Accuro, the new name of the organisation formerly known as Salamanca Trust & Fiduciary prior to its management buyout, has appointed Jonathan Kirby as managing director for its Geneva operation. Kirby takes over the role of Xavier Isaac who was combining his CEO role with the one of MD of Accuro Trust (Switzerland) SA since September 2014. The move allows Isaac to focus entirely on being CEO at Accuro.  

Kirby, who has worked in the trust and fiduciary sector for 13 years, joined Accuro Geneva in August last year as client services director, having previously worked at JTC Group where he was MD of that firm’s Switzerland business, the firm said in a statement yesterday. 

After graduating with a degree in Politics from Leicester University, Kirby started his career in a tax and consulting firm in the UK. He then moved to Guernsey and rapidly headed up a team in the trust division of Deutsche Bank before being transferred to Geneva to manage the Deutsche Bank Fiduciary Services team. 

Besides MBOs at organisations producing organisations such as Accuro, over the past few years, M&A in the trusts sector has been busy, driven by a desire among some firms for scale and among others, a need to offload entities seen as unprofitable and a costly compliance burden. In September last year, Intertrust, the corporate services provider and global trust company, completed its purchase of Elian from Electra Private Equity. A few weeks before, Baring Private Equity Asia’s acquisition in October 2015 of a majority stake in Vistra Group and Orangefield Group led to Orangefield being rebranded under the Vistra name.

In 2014, Butterfield Group, part of Bermuda-headquartered Butterfield, completed its acquisition of Guernsey-based Legis Group, taking on its trusts and corporate services business. Salamanca, the UK-based Investec Trust Group; ABN AMRO sold its trusts business a decade ago to Equity Trust. Rival Netherlands-based firm ING spun off its trusts business in 2007. In the Channel Islands, deals have included investment by Close Brothers Private Equity in Jersey Trust Company and Kleinwort Benson’s acquisition of Close Brothers Offshore Group. In 2011, TMF and Equity Trust merged. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has completed the sale of its ANZ Trustees business to Equity Trustees.

Here is more information about the MBO that has produced Accuro.