The Swiss private bank, which calls Asia its second home market, hit a new high of assets managed in the first 10 months of the year but net inflows missed the target range.

Julius Baer's assets under management rose 2 per cent to a record SFr297 billion ($295 billion) since the beginning of 2015 but net new money during this time was below target, the firm said.

Net inflows in the first 10 months came in just below the bank's 4-6 per cent medium-term target range. The Zurich-headquartered bank attributed this to the ongoing regularisation of legacy assets in France and Italy as well as a slowdown over the last four months in net new money mainly from Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Over the period, Julius Baer welcomed assets from the purchase of Leumi Private Bank and saw positive contributions from the acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business in India. This was, however, partially offset by a negative currency impact of SFr11 billion following the surge of the Swiss franc earlier in the year. The strengthened franc came as a blow to the bank, which holds most of its assets under management in foreign currencies.

Julius Baer, which describes Asia as its second home market, highlighted “restrained” client activity since the end of June following stock market volatilities, which were primarily spurred on by China's economic woes. 

The bank's gross margin stood at 95 basis points as of the end of October, below the 99 bps recorded in the first half of 2015, but its cost/income ratio was slightly above the low end of the 65-70 per cent target range, an improvement from the 69.9 per cent last year.

In the results statement, the bank also announced plans to increase its 19.9 per cent stake in Kairos, the Italian wealth and asset manager, and is considering subsequently listing an adequate minority of the company on the Italian Stock Exchange. As of the end of October, Kairos had assets under management of €8 billion.