M and A
Julius Baer Increases Stake To 80 Per Cent In Brazilian Wealth Manager
Julius Baer has acquired an additional 50 per cent of São-Paulo-based GPS Investimentos Financeiros e Participações, raising the Swiss private bank’s stake in GPS to 80 per cent.
Julius Baer has
acquired an additional 50 per cent of São-Paulo-based GPS
Investimentos Financeiros e Participações, raising the Swiss
private bank’s stake in GPS to 80 per cent from the 30 per cent
acquired in May 2011.
The Zurich-listed bank said this increase follows a “highly
successful cooperation to date and underscores Julius Baer’s
strategic goal of building a leading wealth management business
in Brazil, one of the most attractive domestic wealth management
markets worldwide and the largest wealth management market in
Latin America”.
GPS, which includes GPS Planejamento Financeiro Ltda. and CFO
Administração de Recursos Ltda, is the largest independent wealth
manager in Brazil with approximately BRL15 billion ($16.45
billion) of assets under management, according to a statement
from Julius Baer today.
The increased stake represents another example of how Julius
Baer, which has been integrating its acquisition of Bank of
America’s non-US wealth management business it has bought, has
been bulking up its operations worldwide. The bank also has a
partnership deal with Australia’s Macquarie in a bid to expand
its Asia footprint.
GPS, which employs a total staff of over 120, was established as
a partnership in 1999 by its three founding partners José Eduardo
Martins, Marco Belda and Roberto Rudge. GPS’s operative business
is regulated by CVM, the Securities and Exchange Commission of
Brazil.
The partners of GPS will continue to lead the business as
it is integrated into Julius Baer’s overall corporate structure
and culture. Julius Baer senior executives will assume a majority
in the board of directors of the company and will also appoint
two members to the executive committee of GPS. GPS will continue
to operate under its well-established and respected brand.
GPS is profitable, and the transaction is expected to deliver a
low single-digit accretion to Julius Baer Group’s adjusted
earnings per share in 2014 and will have a limited impact of
approximately 60 basis points on Julius Baer Group’s current BIS
capital ratios, Julius Baer’s statement said.
Julius Baer’s total client assets amounted to SFr348
billion ($394.9 billion) at the end of 2013, including SFr254
billion of assets under management.
