The Italian banking group is poised to purchase Geneva's Bank Reyl, finews.com has learned. The private bank's six partners will retain a minority stake, and are committing to staying on board.
The Swiss wealth manager Reyl is selling to Intesa Sanpaolo, a Turin-based financial group, three sources familiar with the matter told finews.com. The two plan to announce a deal as soon as next week, one of the people said.
Reyl's six partners – François Reyl, Pasha Bakhtiar, Nicolas Duchêne, Thomas Fontaine, Christian Fringhian, and Lorenzo Rocco di Torrepadula – will collectively retain a bit more than 30 percent of the bank following the deal, one of the people said. The men have committed to staying on following after the acquisition.
Trimming Vs. Building
The sale of the 47-year-old, family-owned and -run Genevan institute is a surprise: there was little indication or speculation that CEO François Reyl was pursuing a sale. However, one of the people said Reyl, which also runs a corporate finance unit, had been on the market for some time.
The bank has spent recent years trimming its set-up in order and recently launched an impact boutique as well as set up a digital bank, Alpian, for affluent clients. Both initiatives will be integrated into the deal. Intesa intends to deploy the Reyl name more widely in its international wealth management activities.
Intesa's Growth Push
The move makes sense for Intesa, which has tried to break into Swiss wealth management recently, including by buying Morval, another Genevan wealth manager, last year. Intesa wants to vault itself from Switzerland to one of the five most important European private banks, and manage more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion).
CEO Reyl is a former mergers and acquisitions banker who took over the bank's management from his father,Dominique Reyl, in 2008. Last year, he told finews.com that he wanted to stay independent, but that he is «open for cooperations – if they help step up our growth.»
