Julius Baer to offer private equity to ultra-wealthy clients

7/13/2020 11:17:23 PM

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Julius Baer has poached a senior executive from rival Swiss wealth manager UBS to set up a new division offering private equity and debt investments to its ultra-wealthy clients.

July 13, 2020 - 14:47 Owen Walker

The move illustrates how a prolonged period of low interest rates has forced the likes of UBS and Credit Suisse to prioritise offering illiquid private investments to their super-rich clients, who agree to forgo access to their capital in the hope of achieving higher returns. For the banks, the higher fees that these funds typically charge can mean increased revenue for them.

Giuseppe De Filippo will join Switzerland''s third-largest bank in October along with three other members of his team at UBS. He will then recruit a larger team to focus on direct private investments.

''We saw a massive increase in interest in this space prior to Covid-19, mainly because of the quest for yield but also because some of the private businesses our clients can invest in are really attractive,'' said Luigi Vignola, head of markets at Julius Baer. ''We definitely were lagging [UBS and Credit Suisse] in the past because we didn''t have anything like this.''

Global assets in private equity and debt hit $5 trillion last year, according to data provider Preqin, and private assets have been growing at 10% annually in recent years.

De Filippo''s defection to Julius Baer comes just weeks after UBS announced internally that he would lead private markets distribution for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Switzerland. De Filippo previously held global positions leading the bank''s direct investments group and corporate finance division.

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