Julius Baeris to buy the non-US wealth management operations of Merrill Lynch, boosting the Swiss private bank’s assets by almost half and netting as much as SFr860m ($840m) for Bank of America, which owns the lossmaking unit.
The acquisition is Julius Baer’s largest since it bought four wealth management businesses from UBS in 2005, and it marks its biggest leap forward since deciding to concentrate on private banking three years ago.
For Bank of America, which acquired Merrill Lynch in the depths of the financial crisis, the sale of the unprofitable business marks one more step in the US bank’s reorganisation plan. The bank opted to put the international Merrill Lynch business up for sale earlier this year, following a strategic review.