Feaures: The Big Interview - private ethos tempts westam player to defect.

(From Professional Wealth Management (PWM))

Byline: Yuri Bender

German private bank Sal. Oppenheim is stealthily climbing through the league tables. Its recent acquisition from ING of BHF Bank, another institution offering private and investment banking and mutual funds, has not been a high profile one, but it has added nearly E12bn in critical assets and additional strengths. Oppenheim Asset Management now runs E75bn, making it the seventh largest funds house in Germany. BHF has handed over mutual fund assets to Oppenheim, but will continue to operate as a seperate unit, handling its own private banking and real estate assets.

"There is some overlap, but overall, it is a good fit," says Rupert Hengster, who has been in place as CEO of Oppenheim for just over a year, after moving from WestAM to accept the private banking challenge.

While Mr Hengster plays down any regional carve-up of Germany's private client business, Oppenheim is stronger in Northern Germany and BHF in the South.

The tie-up adds an extra 1700 employees to Oppenheim's existing 1470 payroll. "After this merger, Bank Sal. Oppenheim is now the largest private bank in Europe. We are larger than Julius Baer or Vontobel in terms of assets and people," smiles Mr Hengster, with the inference that his move has already been worthwhile.

Of the assets which Oppenheim brings to the party, E30bn are from the group's private banking arm, E15bn from external institutions and E10bn in retail funds, which have been managed for three years through a joint venture with Prudential of the US. The partnership, which employs 50 people in Cologne and offers 150 mutual funds, started with E6bn. Net retail inflows of E685m in 2004 put Oppenheim fourth behind Indexchange, Allianz Dresdner and Union. Crucially they were ahead of big-name competitors such as Deka and DWS.