Bank Julius Baer wants to clear the air after the Signa debacle.
CEO Philipp Rickenbacher is resigning with immediate effect, the group announced on Thursday when the figures were presented in Zurich. He will be succeeded on an interim basis by his deputy and former Chief Operating Officer Nic Dreckmann. Rickenbacher has led Julius Baer since 2019. The private bank is also writing off the entire loan commitment to the insolvent Signa Group. This leads to net credit losses of 606 million francs (around 651 million euros). Various media had previously reported on the boss’s departure.
Because of the high depreciation, the consolidated profit for 2023 will be halved: at 454 million francs, it will be 52 percent below the previous year’s result. Group profit adjusted for integration and restructuring costs fell by 55 percent to 472 million francs.
Loans worth 650 million euros
Julius Baer had already announced at the end of November that the bank had granted loans worth 606 million francs to a “European conglomerate”. This was obviously the Signa real estate and department store group owned by the Austrian real estate investor René Benko, where not only the holding company but also more and more subsidiaries are in insolvency proceedings.
Despite the decline in profits, the distribution to shareholders should remain stable: the board of directors is proposing an unchanged dividend of 2.60 francs per share. However, there is significantly less money for management.
In addition to CEO Rickenbacher, board member David Nicol also has to vacate his post. The Brit was head of the risk committee on the board of directors. However, Chairman of the Board of Directors Romeo Lacher, who came under criticism in connection with the Signa commitment, remains in office.
Assets under management amounted to 427 billion francs at the end of the year after 435 billion at the end of October 2023. This means that they have increased by one percent within a year. Despite the negative headlines of the past few weeks, the bank was able to record an inflow of new money of 12.5 billion francs in 2023, which corresponds to new money growth of 2.9 percent. In the previous year there were inflows of 9 billion. It is said that customers from Europe, including Switzerland, have entrusted Julius Baer with their assets. At the end of October, however, Julius Baer reported annualized new money growth of three percent.
With the figures presented, Julius Baer remains well below market expectations. The range of estimates was high due to the uncertainty surrounding the provisions. However, hardly any analyst expected a complete write-off of the Signa loans. The dividend, however, was expected to remain unchanged. (dpa)