Kleinwort Benson Wealth Management, a division of RHJ International, have seen a loss of £11.7 million in 2013 despite a 14% growth in assets under management (AuM) to £5.9 billion compared to the same period last year.
The pretax losses are said to be due to a challenging low interest rate and tight credit spread environment.
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In addition, RHJ announced the successful acquisition of German private bank BHF for £281.5 million. As a result, the private banking side would see a 270% increase in AuM from EUR 7.1 billion to EUR 26.3 billion with total income rising by 125% from EUR 65.8 million to EUR 147.9 million.
Leonhard Fischer, chief executive of RHJ, said: "In 2013, the performance across our financial services businesses was mixed, with our asset management operations at Kleinwort Benson Investors posting significant growth in assets under management and profits, while our wealth management operations continued to generate losses due to the challenging economic environment and investments that have been made in growth initiatives."
