Julius Baer said 2015 net income slumped 67 percent to 121 million francs, mainly due to the expected cost of the U.S. case. Operating income rose to 2.69 billion francs from 2.55 billion francs a year earlier, missing an average estimate of 2.73 billion francs by 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
‘Fair Resolution’
Julius Baer has reached a “fair resolution” with the Justice Department and doesn’t expect future cooperation with the U.S. government to be a drag on future earnings, Chief Executive Officer Boris Collardi said on a call with reporters. He declined to give details of the settlement that the Justice Department plans to publish. “We’re entering the year in a position of strength,” the CEO said.
Julius Baer has acquired a handful of smaller companies and financial stakes in firms since it purchased Bank of America Corp.’s non-U.S. wealth units in 2012, although it hasn’t found the next “big elephant” deal that Collardi has said he’s looking for.
In “a perfect world,” the CEO would buy a large company with clients in regions where it already operates such as Asia, the Middle East and Europe, he said in a Bloomberg television interview. A firm with 5 to 10 billion francs under management would be “more a rounding error,” Collardi said, implying that Julius Baer has the ability to absorb something larger.