Bank of America Sells Merrill Lynch International Unit

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: August 13, 2012 10:04 am

Last Updated: August 13, 2012 10:05 am

The Julius Baer Group has announced that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is selling Merrill Lynch’s international wealth management business to the Swiss private banking firm for approximately 860 million Swiss francs ($884.8 million), or 1.2% of the 72 billion francs ($74.1 billion) the business has under management that will be transferred.

Julius Baer says its assets under management will swell by 40% with the deal to 251 billion francs ($258.2 billion). About two-thirds of the assets it will acquire are domiciled in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

To fund the deal, Julius Baer will use a combination of cash on hand and proceeds from proposed capital raises, which includes bringing in Bank of America as a shareholder, according to the press release announcing the deal.

European investors did not appear to be impressed with the news. Shares in Julius Baer retreated as much as 6.1% early Monday on the Swiss bourse.

But on Wall St., shares of Bank of America were up about 1% to $7.82 in early trading. That is in a 52-week range of $4.92 to $10.10. Analysts had a mean price target on the shares of $9.30 before this announcement.

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