Plus WM developments in the U.K., the U.A.E., Russia, Holland and other spots. Bank Julius Baer plans to buy Alpha SIM, a Milan-based firm that provides asset-management and advisory services to high-net-worth individuals. The Zurich-based acquirer says the move is a bid to strengthen its hand in Italy's thriving and lucrative wealth-management space.

"Alpha SIM has a proven track record in providing excellent service and advice that is fully consistent with our strategy," says Bernard Keller, head of Bank Julius Baer in southern Switzerland and Italy. "This acquisition will significantly strengthen Julius Baer's competitive position in the private client services segment in Italy and underscores our continued strong commitment to this important market."

Settentrionale

Alpha SIM has about $560 million in assets under management.

The financial details of the deal weren't disclosed. Assuming it meets with regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2009.

The agreement calls for Alpha SIM and its team, including co-CEOs Cosimo Bisiach and Carlo Mozzi, to become part of Julius Baer's Italian private-client business, Milan-based Julius Baer SIM, under the direction of Julius Baer SIM CEO Stefano Canossa.

Northern Italy, a hub of family-controlled manufacturing, is one of the most prosperous regions of the European Union, according to the Swiss executive-recruitment firm VFU.

Julius Baer has been selling "European Union-harmonized" funds in Italy since the early 1990s. Its Italian onshore institutional-management business Julius Baer SGR has been in business since 2004. Julius Baer SIM, which focuses exclusively on high-net-worth individuals, opened for business in June 2008.

Last week Julius Baer said it would split its private-banking operations from its asset-management businesses into separately listed divisions to cushion its money-making wealth-management lines from losses related to its wounded alternatives manager GAM, a business it acquired from UBS late in 2005 along with a small clutch of Swiss private banks.

Up and down

Russian hedge-fund manager Renaissance Investment Management (RIM) has lost both its CEOs. Moscow-based co-CEO Andrei Movchan stepped down in February 2009, and now London-based Rod Barker has resigned effective 31 May, according to media reports.

Barker, best known in the U.K. as significant other to TV weatherwoman Tanya Bryer, joined RIM, part of Moscow-based Renaissance Group, from London-based fund manager RAB Capital late in 2007. He told Wealth Bulletin that he's now off "to pursue other opportunities."

RIM's U.K.-based COO is Brian O'Callaghan is slated to replace Barker.

RIM, which was launched in 2003, has shed about half of its London staff this year, according to FINAlternatives.

Vaduz, Liechtenstein-based Kaiser Ritter Partner is positioning itself as a wealth manager for ultra-wealthy Americans looking for an offshore banking alternative that doesn't run afoul of U.S. tax authorities -- in fact the first says it works closely with IRS to ensure tax compliance.

The move reflects Liechtenstein's transformation in the aftermath of a 2008 tax crackdown that started in Germany and quickly spread around the globe from a suspect "tax haven" to a place from which several big jurisdictions -- chief among them the U.S. -- apparently feel confident they'll get a good accounting of their citizens' holdings.

The German-speaking, alpine principality contends that it's doing especially well now because many Swiss banks -- scared off by UBS' troubles with U.S. authorities for allegedly abetting tax evasion -- have grown wary of opening Swiss accounts for non-Swiss clients.

Automatically attracted

Dubai, U.A.E.-based Emirates NBD, the Middle East's largest bank by assets, has cut the ribbon for a private-banking branch in Dubai to complement branches in Abu Dhabi and Jumeirah.

"Having a private banking offering is very important for us," says Jamal Bin Galaita, deputy chief executive for consumer banking and wealth management at Emirates NBD. "By having large balance sheets, clients will automatically be attracted."

Emirates NBDalso plans to open private-banking offices in London and Singapore, which have emerged as rivals for supremacy in the worldwide market for Shariah-compliant financial services.

"Shariah" refers to a system of devising laws -- frequently touching on aspects of day-to-day life such as politics, business, and contracts -- based on Islamic texts and traditions.

In 2006 assets held by Middle Easterners with at least $1 million in financial assets increased 11.7%, according to Merrill Lynch's and Capgemini's World Wealth Report -- putting the Middle East ahead of Asia-Pacific's, North America's and Europe's rates of personal-wealth creation among millionaires that year. The Middle East's population of high-net-worth individuals saw a year-over-year increase of 11.9% to about 300,000 in 2006.

But these statistics give a paltry sense of the wealth on hand in the Middle East's most dynamic market, the sparsely populated, oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a customs union and common market of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and U.A.E., and the site of most the region's wealth-management activity.

Back to Europe

It has taken nearly a year to square things with regulators in the midst of a financial maelstrom, but Paris-based BNP Paribas Wealth Management has finally completed its purchase of a majority stake in the corporate parent of Amsterdam-based private bank Bank Insinger de Beaufort and merged it with its Dutch wealth-management subsidiary Nachenius Tjeenk. Insinger de Beaufort stands to claim a major share of the Dutch private-client market as well as some choice offshore slivers from offices in London and Cape Town.

In London, a veteran hedge-fund manager Alan Miller and a scion of the aristocratic Spencer-Churchill family (Alexander, by first name) have joined forces to -- wait for it -- revolutionize the wealth-management industry by means of a new firm called Spencer-Churchill Miller Private.

"Many clients of wealth managers have received a dreadful service and as markets have fallen, the extent of this has become clear," Miller, former CIO of U.K. fund manager New Star Asset Management and the chief architect of the U.K.'s first long-short equity hedge fund about a dozen years ago, told Hedgeweek. "Given this and the current market turmoil, now is a great time to launch a new wealth-management proposition that offers access to a fully committed fund manager with a strong track record, extremely competitive charges and a firm commitment to transparency, service and security."

Spencer-Churchill Miller Private, which is offering a broadly diversified "pension-like" fund and a more aggressive "absolute return" fund, figures there are about 140,000 people in the U.K. with investable assets of a million U.K. pounds and more than 37,000 with 5 million pounds.

"Many high net worth individuals are looking for a new approach to wealth management focused on superior performance, fairer charges and greater transparency," said Miller. 'We are confident that our proposition addresses these issues." -FWR

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