Julius Baer's bid last year to buy a controlling stake in Basel, Switzerland-based Bank Sarasin & Cie. was trumped by an offer from Safra Group. Chief Executive Officer Boris Collardi said April 11 at the firm's annual shareholder meeting he is still interested in making acquisitions as the Swiss wealth- management industry faces a "consolidation wave."
Failure to secure the Sarasin deal and disappointing corporate announcements on 2011 earnings and profitability in the four months through April led Baer's stock to underperform other European banks by 12 percent this year, Robert Murphy, a London-based analyst at HSBC Holdings Plc, said in a June 18 note to clients.
Baer has declined 9.8 percent this year, compared with a 1.4 percent advance in UBS.
Focusing on acquisitions in Switzerland to reduce costs and building partnerships in growth regions would have "a better strategic rationale," he said.
Baer bought a 30 percent stake in Brazilian wealth manager GPS Investimentos Financeiros e Participacoes SA and acquired Macquarie Group Ltd.'s Asian private-client business last year.