Late in 2014, the Luxembourg private wealth chain Banque Havilland SA furthered its global efforts when it acquired two additional branches of Swiss institution Banque Pasche.
In October, Havilland acquired a majority stake in Banque Pasche’s Liechtenstein private banking office. A month later, Havilland completed a total buyout of shares for Pasche Bank & Trust Ltd., the Geneva-based bank’s office in the Bahamian capital of Nassau.
Havilland had previously worked with Banque Pasche, buying the latter’s Monaco location in November 2013. This leaves Banque Pasche with two locations in Switzerland — an office in Zurich as well as the headquarters in Geneva. Among elite banking circles in Europe, there are rumors that Havilland may go for a clean sweep of Pasche and eventually acquire all of the Swiss bank’s assets.
Both Havilland and Pasche cater to some of the world’s wealthiest clients, and the latter has offices in locations which Havilland no doubt deems desirable. Havilland bills itself as a bank catering to ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients, and its roots reflect that strategy. The bank was founded as recently as 2009 by the Rowland family, when David Rowland, the family patriarch and British real estate entrepreneur, worried about the safety of his family’s finances following the stock market crash.
Now, the Rowland family attracts similar high-wealth clients looking to invest wisely and alongside one another. Havilland employs an interesting strategy in which clients can collaborate with the Rowland family, either through brainstorming investment strategies or working together on a single private equity investment.
Following the acquisition of the Bahamas branch of Banque Pasche, Havilland CEO Jean-Francois Willems alluded to the company’s internationalization policy, which allows the bank to better cater to their “global citizen” clients.
Willems added: “Through this [Bahamas] transaction, not only are we expanding our geographic reach but also strengthening our access to the strategic growth markets of Latin America and the Middle East.”