JBARF - Julius Baer Gruppe AG (JBAXY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-02-02 16:32:10 ET

Julius Baer Gruppe AG (JBAXY)

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

February 01, 2024, 03:30 ET

Company Participants

Romeo Lacher - Independent Non-Executive Chairman

Philipp Rickenbacher - CEO

Evangelia Kostakis - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Jeremy Sigee - BNP Paribas Exane

Máté Nemes - UBS

Kian Abouhossein - JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Benjamin Goy - Deutsche Bank

Anke Reingen - RBC Capital Markets

Hubert Lam - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Vishal Shah - Morgan Stanley

Nicholas Herman - Citigroup

Adam Terelak - Mediobanca

Lim Andrew - Societe Generale

Stefan Stalmann - Autonomous Research

Presentation

Romeo Lacher

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today's Investor and Media Conference. I trust you can see our presentation over the screens. [Operator Instructions]. As you have seen from today's media release, we have several topics to discuss among them are our results for the full year 2023. And as usual, our CFO, Evie Kostakis will guide you through the financials.

But first, I would like to touch on the leadership change, what we have announced today. And for that, I would like to give the word to Philipp Rickenbacher, our departing CEO.

Philipp Rickenbacher

Thank you, Romeo. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. By now, you will have read our announcement that I'm stepping down as CEO of Julius Baer. I have offered the Board of Directors to make my position available, and we jointly concluded that it is in the best interest of the company for me to step down. This was not a step I took lightly because my connection and passion for Julius Baer, our clients and our teams run very deep. Yet as the CEO, I reflect on my personal responsibility for this great firm.

My career at Julius Baer has spanned 20 years through great and through challenging times. My professional growth was defined by a culture of taking ownership, learning from the past and thereby strengthening the organization. This is exactly what we are doing today, and I am contributing to this by supporting all the measures taken, including this leadership change.

With the other measures announced today, such as reflecting the full extent of the extraordinary credit event in our 2023 results and the exit from private debt, we draw a clear line and pave the way to move forward and regain the full confidence of our stakeholders in '24 and beyond. It has been an honor for me to serve as CEO of this formidable institution and shape its strategic course over the past 5 years. What we have achieved was only possible with the trust of our clients, the terrific work of our staff, the backing of our shareholders and the support of our stakeholders in Switzerland and the many other financial centers around the world we are active in. I am immensely grateful for that.

Thanks also to all of you attending our call today for your confidence in Julius Baer. This team under the new leadership of Nic Dreckmann, will continue to deliver on your expectations I am convinced.

With this, I would like to end my remarks and hand back to Romeo.

Romeo Lacher

Thank you, Philipp. It was important for me to give you the opportunity to address this leadership change in person. My heartfelt thank you and greatest respect also on behalf of the entire Board of Directors for endorsing the measures we announced today and supporting a change in leadership in agreement with the Board....

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