M&A Awards 2017

Acquisition International - M&A Awards 2017 25 In its drive to maintain excellence, KBL epb has been strengthening its professional staff, enhancing its commercial organization and ensuring the excellence of its private banking services. Following a client satisfaction measurement process, the team has identified and addressed gaps in client experience, ensuring that KBL epb continues to provide the highest level of long-term, personalized service to each client it has the opportunity to serve. KBL epb also expanded its portfolio management service offering, launching the Richelieu Investment Fund range. The introduction of this mandate, supported by close cooperation between our private bankers and portfolio managers, once again led to solid results in 2016. Whether managing today’s wealth or structuring tomorrow’s inheritance, clients benefit from a suite of open, independent solutions, tailored to their specific needs – backed by a client-centric approach, founded upon offering proximity, agility and personalized service. In addition to its core business of private banking, serving professional and institutional clients has been another pillar for many years. While the institutional and professional segment in Luxembourg is particularly substantial, the group’s reach extends far beyond the fund industry and the Grand Duchy’s borders. Launched in 2015, Institutional and Professional Services (IPS) completes the wealth management value chain by positioning the group as a true “one- stop shop.” Largely centered on the group’s longstanding expertise in global custody, fund administration and fund structuring, the aim of IPS is to ensure – via its highly professional Relationship Managers and Account Officers – that the complex needs of institutional and professional clients are satisfied efficiently and to the highest professional standard. Its institutional and professional clients also benefit from staff’s in-depth knowledge of trading and brokerage. The firm provides extensive execution services in equities, bonds, money-market instruments and Forex, as well as in structured products and precious metals. By leveraging multiple channels in multiple markets, the group increases cross-selling, wins more new business and grows overall revenues. Overall, KBL epb now has an even more robust approach to supporting clients across the cycle – ensuring consistency and driving the overall growth of its valued client base. Services for external asset managers have been successfully developed in certain affiliates outside Luxembourg, where it has been able to profit from the rapid growth of the UCI industry. Maintaining, growing and enhancing the wide range of services the firm offers its clients is at the center of everything it does. It is key that staff ensure the group’s services and expertise reflect the asymmetric risk appetite of its clients and a long-term approach to meeting their individual and rapidly evolving needs in an increasingly international environment. The firm stays in close, constant contact with clients, responding quickly to specific issues and offering tailor-made solutions that reflect their individual priorities and long-term goals. The bank’s experts build such relationships based on mutual understanding and trust, with a clear understanding of the importance of regular, transparent communication, especially during periods of increased volatility, providing clear, up-to- date reporting of the performance of each individual portfolio. Reflecting this client-centric approach, the bank’s services – in areas such as Wealth Planning & Structuring and Lending – are direct answers to the needs of the individuals, entrepreneurs and families it serves. These services are designed to help such clients successfully navigate through a changing, and sometimes challenging, regulatory environment. The main goal is to transform those challenges into opportunities by leveraging the firm’s deep domestic insight and pan-European expertise – which is why KBL epb has accelerated its investment in the group’s products and services in areas such as credit, financial planning and asset management. This offer is reinforced by the specialist services provided by the company’s Asset Management, IPS and Global Markets departments. Global Markets is where KBL epb and the market connect. With more than 15 years’ experience in capital markets – and numerous connections with international dealing rooms – the team of structurers is able to use recommendations from the bank’s macro and micro economic research teams to offer clients the most suitable products. As the firm’s asset allocation teams constantly adjust their fund recommendations to its clients, Global Markets seeks to deliver efficient and accurate execution through enhanced technology and connectivity. Given that the group’s fund- execution business handled more than 230,000 trades for a volume of € 23 billion across a universe of 10,000 funds, it is natural that the firm should integrate Global Markets into its service offering. As a result, KBL epb completed over 35,000 fixed- income transactions in 2016 on behalf of private and institutional clients, while also consolidating its position as a buy-side client. The group’s shared values – integrity, commitment and excellence – serve as the foundation for how staff behave and do business, setting standards that shape their actions and inform the group’s vision. In addition to a shared corporate culture, staff training and development have played a central role as it further enhances its client services and improves overall client experience. Indeed, KBL epb continues successfully to execute a long-term growth strategy that includes investing in the skills and development of its people, recruiting experienced professional staff and deepening the group’s footprint. This simultaneous focus on three core areas has enabled the group to deliver on its promise of sustained growth. While external growth initiatives are most visible to the outside world, KBL epb firmly believes that staff training and development are no less critical. The group continues to make, significant investments in staff training under the umbrella of KBL epb Group University, a long-term, company- wide program aimed at supporting employee development through a combination of classroom instruction, e-learning and one-to-one mentorship. Across the group’s footprint, and especially in Luxembourg, KBL epb also promotes internal mobility, creating opportunities for relevant staff to transfer their knowledge and skills within the organization. Likewise, the team strongly encourage cross-border cooperation, organizing a wide range of events that bring together staff from multiple markets. Such meetings facilitate the sharing of local experience and insight – and the creation of new strategies to better serve all clients, no matter where they are based. “In its drive to maintain excellence, KBL epb has been strengthening its professional staff, enhancing its commercial organization and ensuring the excellence of its private banking services.”