Thursday September 24, 09:18 PM
UPDATE 1-Julius Baer to split GAM from private bank on Oct 1
ZURICH, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Julius Baer Holding AG will list its private bank and asset management operations separately on Oct. 1, the group said on Thursday, a move announced earlier this year to give the new entities more room for strategic manoeuvres and acquisitions.
The private bank will be newly listed as Julius Baer Group Ltd and probably be included in the Swiss blue-chip index SMI (Virt-X: news) , the group said on Thursday.
The shares of the old Julius Baer Holding will be traded under the new name GAM Holding.
The separate listings are part of a streamlining of Switzerland's third-biggest bank, which floated its U.S. asset management arm Artio Global Investors Inc, raising more money than expected to help its parent build its war chest.
Shares in Artio gained 3.6 percent in their debut on Thursday in New York to $26.94 by 1933 GMT. In early trade they soared to $28.10 after listing at $26, the top end of the range.
The company's initial public offering raised $650 million in New York as Artio sold 25 million shares.
Baer said the private bank, as well as the new asset management group GAM, would provide more details of their future strategy after the split.
The group said the old management team, lead by chief executive Boris Collardi, would run the new private bank.
Outflows at GAM slowed in the first half, sparking optimism about its future performance, after concerns about the hedge fund industry led investors to withdraw billions of francs in assets from the unit.
Baer said over the weekend it had looked at the private banking assets Dutch bank ING Group NV is putting up for sale and is open to discussing a deal.
Sources with knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Thursday that Baer had dropped out of the race to buy ING's Asian private banking, but could still snap up Swiss assets.
For the full statement click:
(Reporting by Sven Egenter; Editing by Tim Dobbyn) Keywords: JULIUS BAER/
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