IN ILIV/r
GROUP NEWS
Swiss integration
Strategie branding
Growing funds
Peter Merian, Bank Sarasin's CEO - looking at selected acquisitions
Georg Krayer, Bank Sarasin's President - unique mover in Swiss private banking history
small pension fund niche market. For
more than 10 years, it has been growing
its position in the important European
market for sustainable funds. Robeco
does not work in that segment. Through
the alliance, the two fund managers will
be able to share both knowledge and
expertise and use distribution networks.
There is currently an ongoing trend for
fund managers to sell and distribute
non-house funds. Bank Sarasin already
makes available non-house funds to its
customers. At present, Rabobank ntem-
ber banks tend to focus on marketing
Robeco funds to customers. As this new
trend gathers pace, it could be envisaged
that Rabobank will distribute Sarasin
funds through its member-bank distri
bution network, and that Sarasin fund
managers will take Robeco funds into
the offering.
the end of September.
By far the biggest integration has been
in Swizterland itself, where Rabobank
had built a strong boutique for both pri
vate and personal banking clients. This
is very much Bank Sarasin's home mar
ket. However, it did very little business
with so-called personal banking clients.
Private bankers differentiate between
'private' and 'personal' according to
levels of assets under management. The
former are the highly desirable, ex-
tremely high-net worth individuals tar-
geted by all private banks. They entrust
considerable assets to their private bank
and receive dedicated personal service.
Personal clients are wealthy individuals
The Bank Sarasin deal is a non-cash
transaction. Instead, Rabobank brought
its offices and assets under management
into the alliance in return for the 2H per
cent stake. In the period following for-
mal closure on 1 July, the former
Rabobank IPB entities have been inte-
grated into the Bank Sarasin Group,
which is functionally organized in cliënt
service and product divisions. For some
of the IPB units, such as Singapore and
1 long Kong, where Sarasin has no pres-
ence, the integration is still somewhat
cosmetic. They have changed their
names to Sarasin, which, given its
strong branding and image, has strategie
value for Rabobank. The strategy for
international cliënt acquisition and how
it will be organized are still under con
struction, scheduled for completion at
who have entrusted a certain level of
assets to a bank, but could potentially
become private banking clients. The
integration of Rabo Robeco Switzerland
has meant a split in these activities, with
private banking clients now combined
with Bank Sarasin's own and the per
sonal banking clients falling under a
new sub-division within the Swiss bank.
Heinz Zimmer, former General Man
ager of Rabo Robeco Switzerland, has
been appointed head of Swiss private
clients.
The alliance has also been welcomed by
Robeco. CEO Gery Daenick has joined
the Board of Bank Sarasin, along with
Rik van Slingelandt. Bank Sarasin
manages a whole range of inhouse funds
and has built a solid position in the
Guido van Berkel - taking on international private banking
I Rl The Word I 25
