Asia Revenue May Top Europe in 5 Years: Julius Baer CEO

Chanyaporn Chanjaroen, Bloomberg

Julius Baer Group Ltd. said Asia may overtake Europe as its biggest revenue-generating region, as the Swiss wealth manager steps up hiring in Hong Kong and Singapore. “In the next five years, Asia could be the biggest region for us if we grow at double-digit” rates, Chief Executive Officer Boris Collardi said Wednesday in an interview in Singapore. More than half of about 200 new bankers that Julius Baer plans to hire this year will be based in Asia, he added.

Asia contributed about 532 million Swiss francs ($547 million) of Julius Baer’s operating income in 2015, small compared with the 2.2 billion Swiss francs from Switzerland and the rest of Europe. But the share of revenue generated in Asia has been growing fast, doubling to about 20 percent of the total last year from about 10 percent in 2011. Julius Baer is the fifth-largest private bank in Asia by assets under management, according to a 2015 ranking by Asian Private Banker.

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