Julius Baer , private bank head dies in possible suicide?

Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer said that Alex Widmer, the popular 52-year-old chief executive of its private banking unit, died unexpectedly on Wednesday amid an expansion campaign that took advantage of the weakness of larger rivals.

Market reaction signaled just how important Widmer was to the recent growth of Baer's business. Shares of Julius Baer (other-otc: JBHGY - news - people ) fell 9.5% in Zurich on Friday, well below the sector average, after the bank released the news of his sudden death.

 

It would be better to spread the rumor of did he die "on top or on the bottom" instead.

 

swiss, private banking? Yeah, he was probably doing something illegal. He either got tapped by someone or committed suicide.

 

Bingo!!!!! Give the man a cigar.

UBS head indicted, CS involved but denies it. Baer is the trifecta.

Arrests in Bermuda today.

 

Julius Baer Second-Half Profit Drops 45% on Client Withdrawals

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahP8WTTLzA94&refer=home




By Warren Giles

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Julius Baer Holding AG, Switzerland’s third-biggest wealth manager, said second-half profit fell 45 percent as financial market declines eroded portfolios and clients withdrew funds from its asset management unit.

Net income dropped to 342 million Swiss francs ($292 million) from 619 million francs a year earlier, Baer said today. Assets under management fell to 274.5 billion francs from 363.9 billion francs at the end of June, missing the 325 billion-franc median estimate of five analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Outflows at the asset management division accelerated to 25.1 billion francs in the second half from 2.1 billion francs in the first half as stock market declines in October and the Madoff scandal in December prompted customers to withdraw funds from the GAM hedge fund unit. Baer has said it wants scale back asset management and focus on its private banking business, which attracted new funds in the second half.

“These are awful GAM figures, far worse than we all expected,” said Peter Thorne, an analyst at Helvea in London. “This will result in lower profit forecasts and price targets.”

Julius Baer fell 2 francs, or 6 percent, to 31.22 francs by 9:53 a.m. in Swiss trading. The stock is down 22 percent this year, the second-worst performer in the benchmark Swiss Market Index after Swiss Reinsurance Co.

Julius Baer said its moving parts of its investment products business to asset management, which now includes the Artio Global U.S. fund unit, Julius Baer AM Europe, and GAM. Baer plans to sell Artio Global in an initial public offering and in November parted with the head of its investment products business, Beat Wittmann.

GAM

A sale of GAM, which has no investments with Bernard Madoff, is “not on the agenda,” private banking Chief Executive Officer Hans de Gier told reporters on a conference call.

The private bank, which Julius Baer calls its “core” unit, attracted new money of 9.5 billion francs in the second half, compared with 12.3 billion francs in the first six months of the year. Client assets slipped 14 percent to 159 billion francs.

“Asset management was hit really hard and while the positive point is net new money in private banking, it has also suffered,” said Bank Vontobel analyst Tobias Bruetsch in Zurich, who is reviewing his “buy” rating and price target of 50 francs.

The unit, led by de Gier after the death of Alex Widmer in December, hired 69 relationship managers over 2008, bringing the total to 619. The business is attracting about 1,000 new clients a month, de Gier said.

The company said it will pay an unchanged dividend of 50 centimes per share and continue its 2 billion share buyback program as planned.

 

Ubs reports the tenth. I can't wait for that one. Fighting with the Swiss Govt. What arrogance these bastards have. Not for long.

 

link?