Wealth Bulletin

The Zurich-based bank reported that total client assets rose by 25% to SFr241bn and by 19% to SFr154bn in its private client business.

Matthew Clark, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said, “While the market may need some reassurance on gross margins, this is a solid set of numbers.”

Operating income declined by 5% to SFr1.5bn, driven by 3% lower average assets under management and a smaller gross margin.

Inflows from the bank’s Asian business helped to offset outflows due to the Italian tax amnesty and the phased exit from the US business in relation to stricter controls on offshore accounts held by American citizens.

The acquisition Italian wealth manager Alpha SIM added SFr600m in new assets. The reported assets under management do not include the SFr14 billion assets under management resulting from the acquisition of ING Bank (Switzerland) Ltd, which closed in January 2010.

The bank said of total assets that were declared by clients taking advantage of the Italian tax amnesty, around 60% remained with Julius Baer.

Although analysts said the new money figure was respectable, private client inflows were considerably down from the SFr17bn achieved in 2008.

Tier I capital ratio was a very healthy 24.2% at the end of the year.

Boris Collardi, chief executive of Julius Baer, said the bank was well positioned to cope with the changing business environment facing private banking.

He added: “Our priorities therefore remain unchanged: to capture further growth and to capitalise on potential market opportunities.”