The Swiss private bank's profit surged by more than half despite several hefty charges to set aside past missteps. It also launched a share buyback on top of a year-end payout.
Zurich-based Julius Baer's profit climbed to 698.60 Swiss francs ($783.8 million) from 465 francs last year, it said in a statement on Monday. The rise comes despite two a 190 million franc write-down on Kairos, an Italian acquisition, and 73 million for a U.S. money laundering probe.
The bank's income rose nearly six percent to 3.4 billion amid prolific trading by its wealthy clientele, while spending was virtually unchanged. This allowed the lender to dramatically improve its cost-income ratio to 66.4 percent, from more than 71 percent in 2019.
Julius Baer said it will pay shareholders a 1.75 franc per share dividend – up from 1.50 francs last year – as well as launch a one-year long buyback of as much as 450 million francs in its own shares.
Asia Inflows
Net new money growth inched 3.5 percent higher to 15.1 billion francs, reflecting strong inflows in part from Asia, especially Hong Kong, China, India, Thailand – where it has a standalone unit targeting top-20 status – and Japan, although it did not provide breakdowns.
Assets under management worldwide totaled 433.7 billion francs as of December 2020 with Asia accounting for around 27 percent (117.1 billion francs or $131.3 billion).
Other sources of inflows include new and existing clients domiciled in Europe, especially Germany, the UK, Spain, Luxembourg, Ireland and Russia.
