Swiss private bank Julius Baer H1 profit drops 15%

ZURICH (Reuters) -Swiss private bank Julius Baer on Thursday reported a 15% drop in profit for first half of 2024, a tumultuous period that saw the exit of its CEO in the wake of the multi-million dollar Signa debacle.

The Zurich-based bank said adjusted net profit fell to 459.7 million Swiss francs ($520.79 million) from 541 million francs a year earlier. The figure missed the consensus of analyst forecasts for 490 million Swiss francs.

The first half of the year saw Julius Baer ousting CEO Philipp Rickenbacher after the Swiss wealth manager reported losses of 586 million Swiss francs on loans to collapsed property firm Signa.

Austrian property magnate Rene Benko’s Signa Group, which was Julius Baer’s largest client in its private debt business, collapsed into insolvency late last year.

Julius Baer, which this week named Goldman Sachs partner Stefan Bollinger its new CEO, on Thursday said it received net new money of 3.7 billion francs during the first half of the year.

The figure was slightly more than the 3.5 billion francs expected by analysts but lower than the 7.1 billion francs cash inflows reported a year earlier.

($1 = 0.8827 Swiss francs)