Julius Baer net inflows up, CEO to begin on Jan. 9
Adds context, comments from CFO in paragraphs 4-6, analyst comment
ZURICH, Nov 21 (Reuters) -Swiss bank Julius Baer BAER.S on Thursday reported a pick up in net new money during July-October and said new CEO Stefan Bollinger would start on Jan. 9.
Baer's previous CEO Philipp Rickenbacher was ousted in February after the wealth manager wrote down 586 million Swiss francs ($664 million) on loans to failed property group Signa.
The saga has hung over Baer, and Reuters reported in June that Swiss financial market regulator FINMA's ongoing review of the bank's risk controls scuppered talks between the lender and EFG International EFGN.S over a potential tie-up.
Speaking on a call with analysts, Baer finance chief Evie Kostakis said she could not say when FINMA's review would conclude and that it would be prudent to wait on share buybacks until then.
"Our base case assumption is that we will resume normal capital distribution policy again next year," she said.
Kostakis said the bank was still some distance from its cost targets which meant further cost-saving measures could not be ruled out in the near term.
Net new money offered some cheer, though Citi analysts said Baer's gross margin was below analysts' consensus estimate.
Baer said in the first ten months of 2024, assets under management (AUM) rose to 480 billion francs, a year-to-date increase of 12%.
Compared to the first half of 2024, when net inflows were 3.7 billion francs (a 1.7% annualised increase), net new money during July–October accelerated to 7.5 billion francs, a 4.8% annualised rate.
The latter result included a large single transaction of which the majority left in November, it added. Excluding this transaction, the July–October inflow pace was 4.2%.
The inflows came predominantly from key markets in Europe, especially Britain and Germany, as well as Asia - notably Singapore and India - and the Middle East, in particular the United Arab Emirates, Baer said.
"The impact of client deleveraging diminished meaningfully compared to previous years," the bank said.
In the first ten months, the number of relationship managers increased by 46 full-time equivalents to 1,389, it said.
($1 = 0.8822 Swiss francs)
Reporting by Dave Graham and Rachel More. Editing by Mark Potter
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