Int'l: European family offices, expansion in India

FWR Staff

12 August 2008

Wealth-management developments in U.K., Germany and the Asia-Pacific region. Merrill Lynch has reportedly hired former UBS executive Michael Halloran as its head of head of fixed income, currencies and commodities for its Asia-Pacific region. He replaces Antony Hung, who has been put in charge head of Merrill's wealth-management operations in the Far East.

In Europe, the financial-advisory and asset-management Lazard has hired Marcel Herter away from Dresdner Kleinwort as its head of debt advisory in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

"Marcel is widely recognized as a first-rate advisor in the areas of leveraged financing and all debt-related issues," says Ernst Fassbender, co-head of Lazard's German investment-banking operations. "Having built a successful career in various credit and origination functions over a period of nearly two decades, he adds a critical new capability to our German operations at a time when debt advisory is becoming increasingly valuable to many clients."

U.K. family offices

BNY Mellon Wealth Management has hired Joshi Gunputh as a relationship manager with its Family Office Services group in London. She comes to the U.S. wealth manager from her own Frankfurt-based financial consulting company.

Gunputh reports to Jim McEleney, head of BNY Mellon's family-office unit in London.

"We are delighted to welcome Joshi onboard," says McEleney. "Her experience and understanding of the unique needs of family offices will be of great benefit to her clients, as well as enhance the strength and depth of our London team."

Prior to setting up on her own, Gunputh was a trust administrator with London-based Standard Chartered.

In her new role, Gunputh will serve as the primary client contact and specialist resource across BNY Mellon Wealth Management for family offices and their advisors.

New York-based BNY Mellon Wealth Management manages about $162 billion in private-client assets.

There are about 300 family offices in the U.K., according to a study by Scorpio Partnership. That's about 45 more than there were three years ago. These non-commercial investment and planning shops generally cater to families with at least $190 million in net worth.

The same study suggests that there are about 100 multifamily offices -- commercial firms that cater to more than one family -- in and around the U.K. capital.

Bad Homburg

Former UBS executive Dirk von Velsen has joined Cologne, Germany-based multifamily office Flossbach & von Storch in partnership with its founders Bert Flossbach and Kurt von Storch, who used to work at Goldman Sachs.

Von Velsen, who left UBS at the end of 2007, joined the Zurich-based bank when it acquired London-based fund manager GAM in 1999. In 2004, he was a driving force behind UBS' purchase of Bad Homburg, Germany-based multifamily office Sauerborn, which he subsequently led.

Among other duties at Flossbach & von Storch, von Velsen will be working to get the firm's in-house asset-management products and services on large retail platforms, including that of UBS.

As an advisory Flossbach & von Storch offers its clients outside as well as proprietary investment management. It manages or advises on about $3.7 billion in assets.

Huge opportunity

German-sounding Edelweiss Securities -- actually an Indian retail brokerage -- plans to double its advisor headcount to 220 over the next 12 months in anticipation of adding another 3,000 clients.

"There's a huge opportunity to go after" in Indian wealth management, Anurag Mehrotra, head of Mumbai-based Edelweiss' wealth-management unit, told Reuters last week. "The upside is phenomenal."

By 2012, India's wealth managers could be serving a market of 42 million households with $1 trillion in investable assets, according to Celent, a Boston-based market-research firm. In the middle of 2007, India's wealth-management marketplace was worth about $500 billion.

Edelweiss Securities targets clients with investable of at least $500,000. -FWR

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