Brevan Howard Said to Double Size of Geneva Office Next Year
Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, Europe’s biggest hedge-fund firm, will more than double its Geneva staff by the middle of next year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Brevan Howard will take over four floors of a building in Rue d’Italie as the firm’s employees in the city increase to 65 from about 30, said the person who declined to be named because the matter is private. The offices are currently rented by Barclays Plc’s Swiss wealth management business.
The average rental value of the building, less than 100 meters from Geneva’s most expensive shopping street, is 1,200 Swiss francs ($1,203) per square meter, said David Tamman of Promotag SA, which acquired the offices in 1985.
Alan Howard, co-founder of the firm that manages more than $30 billion, is among the London financial professionals lured to Switzerland after the U.K. raised a levy on non-domiciled workers and lifted income taxes for top earners. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd., Europe’s third-largest hedge-fund firm, opened a Geneva office this year for as many as 70 people.
Brevan Howard, which also has operations in Hong Kong and New York, announced plans for a Swiss office last year and said at that time it had no intention of moving its London operations elsewhere.
The building in Rue d’Italie, which also houses Schroders Plc’s Swiss private bank, will be renovated after Barclays leaves next month, said Tamman. Brevan Howard, which currently rents offices at Rue Rousseau near the city’s main train station, didn’t respond to enquiries from Bloomberg News.
Will Bowen, a spokesman for Barclays Wealth in London, declined to comment on the future location of the U.K. bank’s offices in Geneva.
“Geneva is one of the key hubs in the wealth management business and we’re taking on more staff,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Giles Broom in Zurich at gbroom@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Merritt at dmerritt1@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page