Your definitive guide to the highs and lows of 2018: finews.asia features a year-end wrap for four banks describing the highlights of 2018. The second part of the series is about Julius Baer.
2018 may well go down in Julius Baer history as annus horribilis with one exception – Asia. What is quickly becoming the jewel in the bank’s crown, Asia, continued to grow at an enviable clip, adding big-name bankers as well as net new money to its arsenal.
What's more, its Asian head Jimmy Lee (pictured above) exuded calm and control in the face of increased competition – not least from Julius Baer’s former CEO Boris Collardi. «We love competition, it keeps us on our toes,» he said in the face of relentless speculation about a rout in the bank. And he was proved right.
Despite a raid on the bank in the Middle East, where a score of bankers defected to Pictet, Lee has successfully retained star performers like Christian Capelli, Ivan Guidi and Pamela Phua. The departure of market head Angela Bow (pictured below) because of an internal reorganisation was heralded within the bank as a cost-saving because of the pure managerial role she played.
If there was any doubt as to Lee’s ambitions, Julius Baer’s onshore Japan deal with Nomura – which saw the Japanese bank buy a 40 percent stake in Julius Baer’s onshore Japan operations and gave it the license to sell discretionary mandates to onshore clients – was proof enough.
Run For Their Clients Money
It could have been nothing short of heartbreak when its most-high profile former employee – Boris Collardi (pictured below), now a partner at Pictet – bought the landmark Leuenhof building on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse putting himself literally and figuratively across the street from his former employer.
Not only is the building a marquee asset, it is a not-so-subtle message from Collardi that he intends to give his former colleagues a run for their clients money.
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