Liechtensteinische Landesbank continues on its expansion bid: the bank has agreed to buy a Swiss fund service provider, in line with its strategy of growing across the Alpine region.
The Vaduz-based company acquired 100 percent of the share capital of LB (Swiss) Investment based in Zurich, according to a statement released today. Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) agreed to pay about 30 million Swiss francs for the company, a price that will be fixed after the earn-out period.
LB (Swiss) Investment provides services including fund management, compliance and risk management. The company had 11 staff at the end of last year and managed 51 funds with assets totaling 4.9 billion francs.
Change of Board Membership
LB (Swiss) will be renamed into LLB Swiss Investment after the conclusion of the transaction, expected for the second quarter of 2018. Natalie Epp, head of the institutional clients division at LLB, will assume the chair of the company. Bruno Schranz and Hans Stamm are the other members of the board. Marcel Weiss and Ferdinand Buholzer will continue to manage the company.
LLB is acquiring the Swiss business from Frankfurter Bankgesellschaft Switzerland. The selling party said it wants to focus more on its core business with wealthy clients.
Fund Powerhouse
The acquisition will provide LLB with access to the attractive Swiss fund market and is in line with the bank’s strategy to expand the fund business across the three markets Liechtenstein, Austria and Switzerland. LLB aims to be a fund powerhouse in the region.
The takeover is the second within only a few weeks. LLB in December bought Semper Constantia in Austria. Taken together, LLB will be a partner for more than 500 funds for the structuring, safekeeping and administration as well for portfolio and risk management in Switzerland and the EEA, the company said. It has about 100 employees working in the fund business and manages and administers assets of approximately 32 billion francs.
