Vontobel maintains forecast as H1 profit drops (updated)

Vontobel Holding AG

27/07/2023 07:17

(Adds details, background from paragraph 4)
       ZURICH, July 27 (Reuters) - Swiss wealth and asset
manager Vontobel  VONN.S  on Thursday reiterated its 2024
mid-term targets despite a market environment it described as
challenging and after delivering an almost 16% slump in
half-year profit.
    The Zurich-based group posted a fall in first-half net
profit to 127.6 million Swiss francs ($148.4 million), down from
151.4 million francs a year earlier.
    "At Vontobel, we are steering a steady course through this
challenging environment," outgoing CEO Zeno Staub said in a
statement.
    After a record 2021, Vontobel was hit by the falling equity
and bond markets in 2022, resulting in a 40% drop in net profit
for the year. It also posted net outflows after investors pulled
out money from its asset management division.
    Asset management outflows continued, albeit at a slower
pace, in the first quarter of 2023, partially offset by net
inflows of 1.4 billion francs in wealth management.
    For the first six months of 2023, Vontobel saw 3.9 billion
francs of net new money inflows in wealth management that offset
3.0 billion francs of net new money outflows from asset
management.
        Assets under management rose 4% from end-2022 to 211.9
billion francs.
    The group also said it had "significantly strengthened" its
team of client advisors and planned to hire more than 50
relationship managers for 2023.
        Larger rival Julius Baer on Monday reported a jump in
inflows and hiring over recent months, with executives saying
they expected to see sustained benefits from the tie-up of
Switzerland's two biggest banks through continued hiring and an
influx of money brought by the new hires.

($1 = 0.8598 Swiss francs)

 (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Rachel More
and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
 ((brenna.neghaiwi@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 77 35;))