ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss private bank Julius Baer reported a 15 percent drop in profit in the first half of 2024 on Thursday, a turbulent period that saw its chief executive step down in the wake of the multi-million dollar Cigna debacle.
The Zurich-based bank said adjusted net profit fell to 459.7 million Swiss francs ($520.79 million) from 541 million Swiss francs a year earlier. The figure was below analysts’ expectations of 490 million Swiss francs.
The first half of the year saw Julius Baer sack its chief executive Philipp Rickenbacher after the Swiss wealth manager reported losses of CHF586 million on loans to collapsed property firm Signa.
Austrian property tycoon René Benko’s Signa Group, which was Julius Baer’s largest private debt client, collapsed into bankruptcy late last year.
Julius Baer, which this week appointed Goldman Sachs partner Stefan Bollinger as its new chief executive, said on Thursday it had net new cash of 3.7 billion Swiss francs in the first half of the year.
The figure was slightly higher than the 3.5 billion francs analysts had expected, but lower than the 7.1 billion francs in cash flow reported a year ago.
(1 dollar = 0.8827 Swiss franc)
