Vontobel acquires Lombard Odier's US operations

Bank Vontobel will acquire the US asset management activities of London private bank Lombard Odier at an undisclosed price. As part of the transaction, assets of up to 1.2 billion Swiss francs will be transferred to Vontobel Swiss Wealth Advisors (VSWA), based in New York, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vontobel Holding. VSWA is an approved asset manager of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Its consulting teams are located in New York, Geneva, Zurich and several Canadian provinces.

Lombard Odier previously managed approximately US $ 600 million through a subsidiary of the SEC approved in Montreal, Canada, for US-based asset management clients. 600 million US dollars for private brokerage clients. Vontobel plans to integrate Montreal-based Lombard Odier's account manager into the VSWA New York team. The two banks also signed a cooperation agreement. In the future, Lombard Odier will recommend to its preferred partner, Vontobel, private customers in the United States.

Vontobel intends to fully finance the purchase from its own funds. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019. In May this year, Vontobel announced the acquisition of Notenstein La Roche, a subsidiary of Raiffeisen. Vontobel had paid about CHF 700 million for the unfortunate private bank with assets of around CHF 16 billion. Unlike other private banks, Vontobel is engaged on a solid growth path. Previously, the wealth management sector had been threatening for many years.