Vontobel's first half results were below last year's record result, but its wealth management unit was steady in a tumultuous market.
Zurich-based Vontobel reported a pre-tax profit of 180.4 million Swiss francs ($180.6 million) for the first half of the year of which 151.4 million francs were allocated to its shareholders, it reported on Thursday.
Operating income in its wealth management unit was 320.2 million francs during the first six months of the, which was down 1 percent from the same period a year ago. Vontobel deemed the result a «pleasing performance» given the market environment.
Vontobel saw an outflow of 1 billion francs of new client money during the first half of the year, while assets under management fell to 208.6 billion francs from 243.7 billion francs at the end of 2021, marking a 14 percent decline.
AM Performance
In its asset management unit, operating income fell to 247.1 million francs during the first six months of the year, down 15 percent from 290.5 during the comparable period last year. «This primarily reflects a change of business mix in a new environment, as well as the absence of performance fees in the first half of the year. Overall, the margins in the business with both private and institutional clients remain satisfactory, even if they have decreased year on year,» Vontobel said.
«The last few months presented all investors with a major challenge. The situation in the international capital markets, where both stock markets and bond markets experience a sharp fall in prices, has only occurred four times over the last five decades,» CEO Zeno Staub said. «[D]espite the current environment, we remain confident that we can achieve our ambitious mid-term targets for 2022 across the cycle, even if we expect pricing pressure and difficult markets to persist in the near future.»
On November 10, Vontobel will hold an investor day and provide an update about its extended mid-term targets and priorities for 2024 and business performance through the first three quarters of the year.
