Another M&A deal in global private banking has been reached.

Brazil-based BTG Pactual has completed its SFr1.25 billion ($1.29 billion) acquisition of Switzerland-headquartered BSI from its owner Assicurazioni Generali, in one of a number of global deals involving private banking in recent years. The agreement was initially entered into in July last year.

The move creates a group overseeing a total of $186.5 billion of assets under management, with 5,400 staff in 29 countries. Alfredo Gysi has decided to step down as chairman of BSI’s board and will be succeeded by Joseph Rickenbacher, effective from yesterday, according to a statement from the banks.

The completion announcement was approved by Swiss and Brazilian regulators.

The BSI name will remain and the bank, which is present in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, will become BTG Pactual’s global wealth management and private bank platform, the statement said.

The deal sits among a number of recent M&A transactions, with firms such as McKinsey recently predicting more consolidation of the industry, including the number of booking centers, as regulatory costs bite and other forces push firms together. For example, earlier this year Royal Bank of Scotland, the part state-owned banking group, sold its non-UK wealth management arm under the Coutts brand to Geneva-headquartered Union Bancaire Privee; Societe Generale has sold its Asia private bank to Singapore-headquartered DBS, while Barclays earlier this year sold its US private bank to Stifel, a US financial firm.

There are also reports in the Swiss media that Credit Suisse intends to offload its US private bank although the Zurich-listed lender has declined to comment.

This is not the first time a Brazil-based firm has gone shopping for European wealth managers. In 2011, Rabobank, the Netherlands-based firm, sold its majority stake in Sarasin to Safra, the Brazil-based firm, in a $1.13 billion transaction.

Details

Among the other details of the BSI acquisition, BTG Pactual said the purchase reflects “further diversification in its revenue mix with an increased contribution to fee income, as well as a greater international presence”.

At the end of June this year, BTG Pactual’s total assets under management were $98.9 billion, while BSI’s total assets under management at that date were $87.6 billion.

BTG Pactual’s BIS capital ratio on June 30 was 16.9 per cent. At the end of last year, that bank’s fee income on a pro-forma basis would be $2 billion, equating to 52 per cent of total revenues, compared to $1 billion before the acquisition.

“The acquisition of BSI is complementary to BTG Pactual´s existing business and creates a further diversified and global platform," said Marcelo Kalim, BTG Pactual’s chief financial officer.

Changes

Detailing the appointment of Rickenbacher as the new chairman, the firm said that Gysi had been at the helm of BSI for 21 years.

“I have decided to follow other interests in line with a decision I have already made few years ago to move to London. I’m grateful to BTG Pactual as they allow me to remain close to BSI as honorary chairman and senior advisor to BTG Pactual,” he said.

Although not as old as some of the private banks in Switzerland, BSI has been around for nearly a century and a half, having been founded in 1873 in Lugano. BTG Pactual is a relative newbie: it was founded in 1983; it has 245 partners, 3,500 staff and is headquartered in Brazil. It has offices in 20 countries.