The sources contacted by finews.asia claimed that Havilland owner David Rowland, a British real-estate tycoon and billionaire, contacted Falcon shareholders in Abu Dhabi regarding a possible deal. They opened the bank’s books for a due-diligence, but Rowland backed off, for unknown reasons.
The reports of a potential Falcon sale came as a bombshell at the Zurich headquarters since neither executive nor board were involved in the talks between Banque Havilland and Falcon owner Mubadala in Abu Dhabi, as further research showed.
Late Denial
Worse still: earlier this month, Falcon CEO Martin Keller and Chairman Roberto Grassi had been in Abu Dhabi and were assured by Mubadala that Falcon Private Bank wasn’t up for sale, and that the current strategy had the support of the owners. At the time, reports were making the rounds that the Falcon shareholder was ready to sell if the price was right. It is worth noting that Abu Dhabi was slow in showing its support of Falcon and denying any sale intentions.
Private Banking a Sideshow
CEO Keller and the new board under Chairman Grassi are not to be envied for sure. Last fall, they took over a bank whose reputation had been badly tarnished by the 1MDB scandal, a company that had lost its banking license in Singapore, been censured by Switzerland's financial market regulator Finma and whose structure didn’t match its earlier ambitions. «Profitable and sustainable private banking was more of a side show. My job is to make it mandatory,» Keller claimed last February in an interview with finews.asia.
Keller is now struggling with a string of departures from his team. In April, CFO Urs Zraggen as well as three further managers, Mathias Studach, Ivo Sauter and Christian Schulthess quit.
Wave of Resignations
