Group Banque Richelieu, owned by SGBL, acquires swiss private bank Kaleido

BEIRUT — Group Banque Richelieu, an international private wealth and asset management company based in Paris and owned by Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), acquired Zurich-based Swiss private bank Kaleido on July 8, according to a press release from the group.

SGBL had acquired Group Banque Richelieu in 2018 as part of the bank’s international development strategy. The group will be managed by Compagnie Financière Richelieu, chaired by SGBL CEO Antoun Sehnaoui and fully owned by SGBL.

“This acquisition brings the group's assets under management to around. €10 billion,” the press release noted. It did not, however, state how much the deal closed for. 

The deal is also set to complement the geographical “footprint of the group,” which operates in France, Monaco and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), across three business lines including wealth management, asset management and investment banking. 

Kaleido will be rebranded to become “Banque Richelieu Switzerland,” the press release stated.

This step falls under the group’s strategy to grow its international operations and “consolidate its position in the international wealth management market.”

“Switzerland remains the epicenter of wealth management in Europe and is one of the largest international markets,” said Sylvain Fondeur, the group’s CEO.

Six years after Lebanon’s economic collapse, the country’s insolvent banks continue to function as a zombie sector, unlawfully restricting depositors’ access to their own funds. A bank restructuring law is yet to be voted on. In early July, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber said that the law would be approved “before the end of the current month.”