Quintet is bulking out its operations in Switzerland in anticipation of winning a banking license with an acquisition. The Luxembourg-based wealth manager is poaching heavily from UBS to do so.
The Swiss branch of Qatari-controlled Quintet is hiring more UBS bankers, finews.com has learned. The Luxembourg wealth manager is approaching the expected closing of its acquisition of Bank am Bellevue, a deal that gives Quintet (formerly KBL) a Swiss banking license as well as roughly two dozen employees.
Under UBS' former top private banker Juerg Zeltner, the wealth manager is seeking rejuvenation in a several hundred million dollar expansion bid. Qatar's ruling al Thani family, led by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, bought KBL from troubled Belgian bank KBC in 2011 for 1.05 billion euros.
UBS Veterans
Quintet's incoming Swiss CEO Dagmar Kamber-Borens (pictured below) and Zeltner aim to hire roughly 25 private bankers for Switzerland by the end of 2020, a Quintet spokesman said. Kamber-Borens is hiring Anke Werner as her operating chief.
Werner is an 18-year veteran of UBS who most recently was a technology program manager in Zurich. Kamber-Borens, who already hired her finance and legal chiefs from UBS, as finews.com reported last month, is hiring Credit Suisse's Christine Kennedy to oversee the Swiss bank's compliance.
The Swiss bank-to-be is also hiring Celine El Debs as its head of alternative investments. A veteran of UBS who began her career at Ferrier Lullin, El Debs was most recently briefly head of Muzinich's business in French-speaking Switzerland.
Nordic Push
Quintet, the parent, is poaching Ole Jensby from UBS as its head of wealth management for the Nordics. Alongside Switzerland, the region represents a new market for Quintet, a group of eight European private bankings including Germany's loss-making Merck Finck and U.K. regional wealth lender Brown Shipley.
Zeltner and other partners, who include wealth boss Jacob Stott, operating chief Colin Price, and top lawyer Maria Leistner, added other UBS executives last year, including Martin Schick as the parent group's head of offerings, Meredith Ward for offering and distribution, and James Purcell as its head of environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, investing.
