Asian millionaires wealth to triple by 2015: Julius Baer

HONG KONG: Julius Baer Group, the 121-year-old Swiss private bank, said assets held by rich Asians will more than triple to $16 trillion by 2015 as the region's fastest-growing major economies create more millionaires.

"Most of the wealth growth will be coming from China," chief executive officer Boris Collardi said in an interview on Thursday in Hong Kong. The Asian nation may add 8,83,000 high-net worth people by 2015, bolstering growth of assets in the region from $5 trillion last year, according to a preliminary report from Baer.

Baer joins bigger rivals such as UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank, in expanding in the region as wealth creation and economic growth there outpace the US and Europe. Baer aims to increase its assets under management in Asia to as much as 25% of the total within five years, from almost 15%. Headcount in Asia will grow proportionately, Collardi said.

The bank also plans an office in Shanghai in the first half of 2011. The Swiss firm, which has over 3,500 employees globally, currently employs about 500 people mostly in Hong Kong, Jakarta and Singapore.

UBS aims to double its workforce in China to as many as 1,200 people in five years, Yoon Chi-won, co-head of the company's Asia-Pacific unit, said in February.

India will add 2,35,000 high-net worth people by 2015, followed by Korea with 1,75,500, according to a preview of the Asian wealth report to be published in August by Bank Julius Baer & Co in partnership with CLSA.