Swiss private bank Julius Baer is to buy Bank of America’s non-US Merrill Lynch wealth manager, paying 860 million Swiss francs ($882 million) for the loss-making business to boost its assets managed by 40 per cent and backing the deal with plans to raise 1.19 billion Swiss francs (Dh4.47 billion) in new capital.
The acquisition, the latest in a string of purchases for deal-hungry Baer, is the bank’s most assertive move since it bought Ehinger Armand von Ernst, Ferrier Lullin & Cie, BDL Banco di Lugano and asset manager GAM for 5.6 billion francs from UBS in 2005.
But the cost of the deal, including the new capital requirements, was taken badly by investors, who sent the shares sharply lower in early trading. At 0939 GMT the stock was down 5.6 per cent at 33.44 francs (Dh125.69), while the Stoxx Europe 600 banking sector index was up 0.4 per cent.
No comments:
Post a Comment