EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Family Values Prove A Winner For Lombard Odier In Asia

Chrissy Coleman

27 February 2013

If you had the privilege of spending the recent Chinese New Year festivities in the prominent areas of China, Hong Kong or Singapore, among other countries, you’ll have noticed three reoccurring themes that are synonymous with the emerging economies of Asia: family, wealth and indulgence.

Similarly, while Lombard Odier, the Swiss private bank, isn’t hanging branded Chinese lanterns from Asia’s skyscrapers to get its name out there, it’s positioning in the East certainly hits on these themes.

Welcome to the family

The wealth manager is an independent family business and has been for seven generations, with Patrick Odier at the helm, steering 24 offices in 17 countries. In Asia, it has had a presence for over 25 years, boasting offices in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and plans to double its assets under management in the region by 2015, the firm’s recently appointed Singapore chief executive told WealthBriefingAsia in an exclusive interview.

Vincent Magnenat joined the firm last December from Societe Generale and has already been thoroughly de- and re-briefed to be able to convincingly pitch Lombard Odier’s value proposition, as if he were a Lombard or Odier himself.

“We have two core service offerings - private banking and investment management and we don’t want to be anything else…focus has been key to our successes,” he said.

Targets

His target is to bring the firm’s Asia AuM to SFr16 billion within three years’ time so Magnenat certainly has his work cut out for him.

However, it seems a plan is already in action, in view of its recent strategic partnership with KB Kookmin Bank to tap into South Korea’s wealth market. This country is home to 144,000 high net worth individuals according to the World Wealth Report 2012 by Capgemini and Royal Bank of Canada.

“Let’s be honest, we don’t know the market there, that’s why we for a strategic partnership,” Magnenat said of the alliance.

“It works well, like the one we have done in Australia – I mean we are not there with KB but this is the objective - to grow to that kind of partnership stage,” he said.

He said providing Lombard Odier’s clients with opportunities to invest in South Korea would be the “next step” of this move but was reluctant to divulge much more about the relationship with KB since ink is still drying on the agreement. He added that the bank is “exploring” further partnerships with banks in other Asian countries as part of its growth strategy.

Back in the home country of Switzerland, meanwhile, Lombard Odier, and fellow Swiss private bank Pictet, recently took the historic step of ending the old unlimited liability structure of its family partners - a move that was driven by the objective of achieving stronger governance and greater transparency, against a background of recent global expansion.

Strategic indulgence

So Lombard Odier is a family firm trying to get a bigger piece of Asia’s money-pie - but who is not? How does this super-discreet private bank differentiate itself from the other players? Aside from its 200-year legacy and survival of “42 crises”, this bank likes to woo its clients with ultra-exclusive events, or “rendezvous” as Magnenat puts it, complete with his French accent.

“We won’t be advertising on the buses in Singapore or Hong Kong - we want to be recognised in the right places by the right people - so it will be more exclusive rendezvous, like the one we organised last year with Al Gore, and with the Champagne, Tattinger, which is a family business - where we had Mr Tattinger ,” he said.

On the guest list you will find existing and prospective clients, but only the VVIPs, he said: “We try to keep it very intimate so the people can connect with the people – Al Gore was less than 50.”

This year’s guest of honour is top-secret, Magnenat said with a twinkle in his eye - no doubt someone to wow Asian clients.

After all, the bank can’t be showing its home-based clients too much preference. An elite few have been invited on “Mr Lombard’s baby,” Magnenat said. This is the Hydroptère.ch super yacht, which Lombard commissioned to be designed as one of the fastest sail boats in the world, and is currently docked in Europe.

Nevertheless, Magnenat said Lombard Odier is happy to foot the bill when it comes to hosting Asian clients at their Euro-events, such as the “garden-party” that is being held in Versailles this summer. Magenat’s lips were firmly sealed as to the details but one can speculate that it may have something to do with the 400th anniversary of the birth of André Le Nôtre, the French landscape architect who designed the gardens, which feature the Latona Fountain, currently being restored by the firm’s Fondation Philanthropia.

Networking

According to Magnenat, Lombard is chairman of the international chapter of the Family Business Network, which he describes as “a very powerful network of families all around the world”. While the bank says this role is separate to Lombard Odier's activities, it is reflective of Lombard's status in the world of family wealth. And despite the bank being seemingly rich with connections, it is coming up with innovative ways to interact with its network of client and peers.

One of these initiatives includes the firm’s E-MERGING online platform, set up in 2009, which connects the bank’s little black book of professional contacts over social media. While it is currently aimed at the firm’s external asset manager colleagues, it will be soon be open to practitioners in the legal industry, following the launch event in Singapore next month.

Additionally, the Singapore office will put in place a “physical platform” for entrepreneurs across different continents: these are regular discussion panels will be hosted in person, or “a meeting of minds”, as Lombard Odier likes to call it.

Finally, philanthropy is a prominent theme for the bank and its clients. Magnenat hints at an upcoming project which involves working with Asian families in this field, an initiative that he and his Singapore team will be spearheading, and Magnenat expects to make headlines.

Protective

While all private banks pride themselves in being protective over their clients and discreet in their activities, this family firm has a unique reputation which it needs to guard vehemently. Magnenat said that out of all wealth managers in Asia, Lombard Odier manages the highest ratio of discretionary portfolios in the region – more specifically, 75 per cent of its Asian clients trust the bank with their wealth entirely, which is a rare feat in the East.