Julius Bär Completes Acquisition Financing for Bank of America Merrill Lynch's International Wealth Management Business

On 22 October 2012, Julius Bär Group, a leading Swiss private banking group, successfully completed a CHF 492 million capital increase by way of a rights offering to the shareholders of its parent company. In September, Julius Bär had already issued and placed CHF 250 million of perpetual Tier 1 subordinated bonds with institutional and private investors. The net proceeds of the rights offering and the hybrid bonds issuance will be used to finance the acquisition of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's International Wealth Management business based outside the US and Japan. Credit Suisse AG, Goldman Sachs International and Bank of America Merrill Lynch International acted as joint lead managers in the rights issue whereas Credit Suisse AG and Zürcher Kantonalbank acted as joint lead managers for the hybrid bonds placement.

Bär & Karrer acted as Swiss legal adviser to the joint lead managers in the rights offering and the hybrid bonds placement. The team included Thomas Reutter, Roland Truffer, Till Spillmann, Ariane Riedi Wirth and Daniel Heiniger.