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The
result of Britain's June 23 referendum caught many in the market
off guard and triggered a rush of foreign exchange trading as
the British pound fell sharply, helping Baer's adjusted net
profit rise to 402 million Swiss francs ($407 mln) for the first
half of the year.
This was ahead of analysts' forecasts and was Baer's best
half-year result since the bank split from its asset management
business in 2009.
Asked about the wider implications from Brexit for the bank,
Chief Executive Boris Collardi said Baer was still assessing the
implications.
"It's still relatively fresh," Collardi said in a call with
reporters.
The better than expected numbers, also boosted by a 63 million
franc gain from a pension fund plan amendment, initially pushed
the bank's shares up by around 3 percent but they pared gains to
0.9 percent by 0755 GMT.
Baer, Switzerland's third-biggest private bank, said assets
under management rose 4 percent to 311 billion francs in the
first six months of 2016.
However, net new money, a volatile but important indicator of
future earnings in wealth management, grew 3.7 percent, missing
a goal of between 4 percent and 6 percent on an annualized
basis.
That is one of Zurich-based Baer's three medium-term targets,
all of which the bank reaffirmed.
In the past, Baer has relied on acquisitions to keep pace with
much larger rivals UBS and Credit Suisse. It is now also hoping
that recruiting more private bankers will help win new clients
and that some will bring clients with them.
Baer said it had hired more than 200 bankers this year, a net
increase of close to 50 relationship managers.
Collardi said the hiring would continue into the second half and
that struggles at rivals, some of whom are undergoing
restructurings and are facing financial pressures, had made it
easier to poach new private bankers.
"Given the difficulties that many of our competitors are having
right now," Collardi said, "it's proving to be maybe a bit
easier (to hire) than it has been in the past."
(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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