Bank of America sells business unit
Bank of America’s wealth management business employs a number of people in Dublin. Julius Baer and Bank of America refused to say how many Irish employees were in this operation.
“Dublin is now on the Julius Baer map and it is one of our new locations acquired by the deal,” a spokesperson for the wealth manager said.
The price that Julius Baer is paying for the transfer of €68bn of assets under management, will be made up of $250m of Julius Baer shares with the remainder in cash.
“This acquisition brings us a major step forward in our growth strategy and will considerably strengthen Julius Baer’s leading position in global private banking,” a spokesperson for Julius Baer said.
Baer, which bought ING Groep’s Geneva-based wealth unit in 2009, said the acquisition would boost its managed assets by about 40% to 251bn francs. The purchase would be earnings accretive from the third full year, Baer said, and consolidates the bank’s position as the fourth-biggest Swiss wealth manager after UBS, Credit Suisse Group and Pictet & Cie.
“We’re absolutely at the bottom in market valuation terms, so in that respect it’s an ideal time to buy a private-banking business,” Ray Soudah, head of MilleniumAssociates, an advisory firm for banking mergers based in Zurich and London, said before the deal was announced.
