Julius Baer senses opportunity in Brazil

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Julius Baer senses opportunity in Brazil

UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse will further reduce the number of large international private banks in Brazil. Julius Baer has been quick to take advantage of this.

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Photo: iStock

Wealth manager Julius Baer recently recruited Sylvio Castro – formerly CIO of international wealth management Brazil at Credit Suisse – to head up the client management team in that country.

He is one of the founding partners of Grimper Capital, which was set up in January 2021 after a wave of departures from Credit Suisse.

Several of Castro’s Grimper colleagues, including André Szasz and João Freitas, will also join Julius Baer’s 250-strong team in São Paulo. According to Castro, he was approached by multiple private banks over the past six months as the war for talent in Brazil’s private-banking industry heated up.

He tells Euromoney that Julius Baer was ultimately the best fit for the team – and its clients – and that life as an independent asset manager had proven to be surprisingly tough.

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Sylvio Castro, Julius Baer

“There has been a big shift in the [asset management] industry in recent years,” says Castro. “Until very recently, Brazilian investors were heavily concentrated in domestic bets – and that means the nature of the business is limited in size.


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