UK/SWITZERLAND - Swiss private bank Julius Baer will sell its UK-based fixed income and currency asset management subsidiary Julius Baer Investments Ltd (JBIL), with CHF11bn (€6.82bn) in assets, to its management.

Julius Baer, which did not disclose further financial details of the transaction, will retain a 10% stake in the in the firm, which to be renamed Augustus Asset Managers Limited (AAML).

The current management will stay in place and the firm will continue to be the sub-adviser on a number of Julius Baer SICAV mutual funds and the investment manager of the Julius Baer hedge funds.

In a statement, the bank said that it did not make sense for either JBIL or the Julius Baer Group to "functionally integrate this quite distinct business into GAM [the London-based alternative asset manager]," given the different investment approach of the two firms.

"The majority of equity in the company will now be owned by AAML staff who will pay for this shareholding on an earn-out basis, the value and mechanism of which remains undisclosed," the firm said.

Elsewhere it emerged that JP Morgan has promoted current global CEO Paul Bateman as head of global asset management and chairman of asset and wealth management.

The company needed someone to address overall strategic matters, a spokeswoman explained the creation of Bateman's position, which he will take on at the end of January.

Jes Staley, CEO of asset and wealth management, will take on Bateman's responsibilities.