Sarasin Gets A Makeover With New Name

Tom Burroughes

12 February 2013

Sarasin, the Swiss bank which has offices worldwide including the Asia region, has been rebranded as Bank J Safra Sarasin as Brazilian bank owner, Safra, yesterday announced the final stage of the transaction.

The head office of the renamed entity will remain in Basel, the banks said in a statement. Joachim Straehle, chief executive of Bank Sarasin, will remain CEO of the merged bank.

“Bank J Safra Sarasin will continue to follow Bank Sarasin’s existing business strategy, and position itself as a sustainable international provider of financial services,” the statement said.

The firm has a footprint of 30 locations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, with assets of around SFr130 billion ($140.2 billion) and a staff of around 2,140 people.

The move by a Brazilian firm to buy this Swiss player, at a time when banks in the Alpine state have seen their traditionally secretive banking models come under fire, has also signalled how Brazil, one of the BRICs, is asserting its financial firepower overseas. Last year’s move to buy the controlling stake in Sarasin from Netherlands-based Rabobank - later leading to the purchase of almost the entire share capital remaining - also happened amid several examples of wealth management merger and acquisitions, such as the move by Julius Baer to acquire the non-US wealth business of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Among other details in yesterday’s statement, the Brazilian and Swiss banks said Joseph Safra will be the chairman of J Safra Sarasin Group. The members of the board of directors will be: Pierre-Alain Bracher, Hans-Rudolf Hufschmid, Jacob Safra, Sipko Schat, Philippe Dupont, Dagmar Woehrl and Sergio Penchas. The bank’s new executive committee will comprise Straehle, Marcelo Szerman, Burkhard Varnholt, Eric Sarasin, Enid Yip, Elie Sassoon, Edmond Michaan, Thomas Mueller and Daniel Belfer.

Current members of Bank Sarasin’s Executive Committee Fidelis Goetz and Peter Sami are stepping down.

The merger will be implemented once the squeeze-out proceedings currently being carried out have been completed, which is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2013, and is subject to final approval by the competent authorities.