Safra private bank assembles new dealmaking team for ultra-rich clients

The Swiss private bank J Safra Sarasin has tapped Bank of America and Goldman Sachs for a new advisory team that will strike deals for its ultra-rich clients.

The 180-year-old bank is part of a $25bn global business built up by the late Lebanese-Brazilian patriarch Joseph Safra, known as the world’s wealthiest banker when he died in 2020. 

J Safra Sarasin, based in Basel, is an arm of the Safra family’s banking interests outside Brazil that has focused on providing wealth and asset management services. It had more than SFr204bn ($225bn) in assets under management at the end of last year.

The bank is now seeking to expand into providing advice in areas such as mergers and acquisitions and equity capital raises, aiming to offer clients — including entrepreneurs and family offices — more services.

The unit will be led by Edward Joudrey, a former managing director at Bank of America in London who focused on M&A sales processes, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Other new members will include Yegor Bryukhanov, also previously at Bank of America, and Lorenzo Sforza, formerly at Goldman Sachs, according to LinkedIn posts from them.

The team will focus on dealmaking in private markets, which have become an increasing locus of activity amid the growth of private equity and private credit.

A majority stake in Bank Sarasin was acquired by the J Safra Group in 2011 under a deal valued at CHF1.04bn ($1.12bn), before it later purchased the outstanding shares. J Safra Sarasin said its net profit rose nearly 7 per cent to SFr470mn in 2023, compared to SFr440mn in the prior year.

The bank has 30 offices globally with more than 2,500 employees, according to its website.

The wider Safra conglomerate includes real estate, such as the Gherkin tower in London, with a core of financial institutions that also comprises São Paulo-headquartered Banco Safra, Brazil’s fifth-largest private sector lender by assets, and the Safra National Bank of New York, based on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.  

Tracing its roots to financing trade caravans in Ottoman times, a branch of the banking dynasty moved to Brazil in the 1950s with the family playing an important role in shaping global private banking. Joseph Safra shunned the spotlight but was known for his philanthropy and love of the arts before his death in December 2020. 

J Safra Sarasin did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside working hours.