ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Julius Baer Group is buying Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business (IWM) based outside the United States. IWM has CHF81 billion of assets under management (AuM). The agreement is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvement and will take two years to fully implement.
IWM has more than 2,000 employees, including more than 500 financial advisers.
The price will be 1.2 percent of AuM, which is expected to be anywhere from CHF57 billion to CHF72 b, of which approximately two-thirds will come from growth markets.
The bank “will considerably strengthen its leading position in global private banking by adding substantial scale and additional offices primarily in growth markets, but also in Europe,” says Julius Baer in a statement. “Assuming CHF72 b AuM transferred, Julius Baer’s existing AuM as of 30 June 2012 would increase by approximately 40 percent to CHF251 b and its total client assets to CHF341 b.”
