I've mentioned Sarasin a few times, usually something along the lines of February's "UK investor buys 7% stake in General Cable (BGC)":
These guys are a class act. Sarasin & Partners runs about $15 Billion.From Bloomberg:
The parent company Sarasin Group owns one of the best Swiss private banks....
Julius Baer Said in Lead to Buy Rabobank Stake in Sarasin
Julius Baer Group Ltd. (BAER), Switzerland’s largest publicly traded private bank, is leading the race to acquire a stake in Bank Sarasin & Cie. AG held by Rabobank Groep, people familiar with the process said.
Baer, which submitted a bid late last week, may pay between 35 and 45 Swiss francs per share, two of the people said. Discussions to sell Sarasin are still under way and the outcome of the sale isn’t clear, the people said....
...If Baer succeeds in buying Rabobank’s stake in Sarasin, it may consider selling Sarasin’s asset management business, one of the people said. The 45 franc-per-share price would value Sarasin’s B shares at about 2.3 billion francs ($2.5 billion), according to Bloomberg data. Rabobank owns all 56.6 million A shares in Sarasin, which are valued at 6.69 francs per share.
Spokesmen for Baer and Rabobank declined to comment.
Sarasin Soars
Sarasin shares rose 4.2 percent to close at 35.10 francs in Zurich. They have risen 23 percent since reports of a possible deal emerged Oct. 13. The bank is now valued at 2.2 billion francs.
Baer had 166 billion francs in client assets at the end of June compared with 101.6 billion francs at Sarasin. Pictet & Cie., the nation’s biggest closely held bank, is currently the third-largest money manager in Switzerland with 252 billion francs in managed assets, behind UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group AG....MORE
