Swiss private bank EFG sees profit soar 50% in 2023 (updated)

EFG International AG

21/02/2024 06:27

(Adds details)
       ZURICH, Feb 21 (Reuters) - EFG International  EFGN.S  on
Wednesday reported a 50% jump in net profit to 303.2 million
Swiss francs ($344.35 million) last year, marking a record
profit for the Swiss private bank which has hired extensively
from Credit Suisse in the wake of the bank's collapse.
    Assets under management shrank slightly to 142.2 billion
from 143.1 billion francs at the end of 2022, less than the
145.5 billion estimated by analysts at Vontobel.
    The bank, which proposed a 22% increase in its dividend to
0.55 per share for 2023, said the strong Swiss franc had more
than offset the inflows and positive market performance.
    "Our record profit and our strong operational performance
demonstrate that we are delivering on our strategy more rapidly
than originally envisaged, which puts us a year ahead of plan,"
EFG's CEO Giorgio Pradelli said. 
    Money inflows for the full year were 6.2 billion francs,
with EFG already reporting net new assets of 5.2 billion for the
first 10 months of 2023. 
    The bank has been on the pursuit of wealthy clients, hiring
141 new client relationship officers last year and taking over
whole teams from Credit Suisse, including in the exclusive ski
resorts of St. Moritz and Gstaad.
    With clients often following relationship managers, which 
on average manage over 300 million francs at EFG, the new hires
are expected to accelerate inflows in the coming years. 
    In a separate announcement, EFG said it was nominating the
digital expert Prasanna Gopalakrishnan to join its board of
directors and succeed Bernd-A. von Maltzan, who has decided to
not stand for re-election. 

 (Reporting by Noele Illien, Editing by Rachel More and John
Revill)
 ((Noele.Illien@thomsonreuters.com; +41 41 528 39 73;))