Switzerland’s Falcon Private Bank plans to expand in Africa in the light of the decision by Barclays to sell its African assets. Barclays had announced it would sell a 62% stake in Barclays Africa, its South Africa-based subsidiary, as it attempts to simplify its structure and seek higher shareholder returns. Erich Pfister, global head of private banking at Falcon, said the bank will see what Barclays is going to do. Falcon is owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Company and has around $18 billion in assets under management. Falcon had recently hired a small team of bankers in London from Standard Chartered and they were drawing up a strategy for future expansion in Africa, which should be complete in the next two weeks.
