Report :Julius Baer Seeks Deal With US To Settle American Offshore Accounts Case
Swiss private banking group Julius Baer Group Ltd. (JBAXY.PK,JBARF.PK) may have to pay more than it anticipated to settle a case with the U.S. Justice Department over American offshore accounts, according to media report quoting people familiar with the matter.
The report indicated that the U.S. prosecutors could ask Julius Baer to settle for much more than the $350 million earmarked by the bank for the case.
Representatives from Baer will meet with U.S. officials in the coming week for negotiations, the report said.
Julius Baer set aside $350 million in June to resolve the four-year investigation with the Justice Department. A month later, the company reported that its profit attributable to shareholders for the first half of 2015 fell to 39.0 million Swiss francs or 0.18 per share francs from 178.3 million francs or 0.82 per share francs last year. The Chief Executive Officer Boris Collardi reportedly said he’s “very hopeful” the tax dispute will be closed this year.
Once the U.S. tax dispute is settled, Collardi could make further acquisitions.
On 16th December 2015, Julius Baer announced that it agreed to acquire Commerzbank International SA Luxembourg, a well-established and fully-licensed private banking franchise with close to 3 billion euros assets under management, from Commerzbank AG. The total consideration is about 68 million euros, assuming 25 million euros of regulatory capital is transferred as part of the transaction.
