The Geneva-based asset management firm NOTZ STUCKI has appointed Frédéric de Poix as Head of its Wealth Management division and as a member of its Executive Committee. De Poix replaces Damiano Paternó Castello, who will manage the Zurich office and sit on the Board of Directors. NOTZ STUCKI will expand its business activities in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, focusing particularly on the distribution of investment solutions to institutional clients. NOTZ STUCKI also intends to pursue implementation of the development strategy as announced in June 2019.
Damiano Paternó Castello is leaving NOTZ STUCKI’s Executive Committee to relocate to the Zurich office, following the retirement of Ulrich Höhn who has run the office since its opening in 1991. His main mission will be to develop the business activities in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, while continuing to look after his substantial client base. Damiano Paternó Castello has joined the Board of Directors of Notz Stucki & Cie SA.
He will be replaced as Head of the Wealth Management division by Frédéric de Poix, who is now also a member of the Executive Committee. Frédéric de Poix joined NOTZ STUCKI in 2013 and was previously Deputy Head of the Wealth Management department. He began his career as a commodities trader at Sucres et Denrées, and then at Finagrain, and then worked for 15 years as a private banker at Morgan Stanley and Hyposwiss in Geneva.
With a presence in Zurich since 1991, NOTZ STUCKI views German-speaking Switzerland as a strategic region for growth and the relocation of Paternó Castello to Zürich underlines its strong commitment to the area. In addition to wealth management, the Group intends to develop its asset management business by stepping up its efforts to promote and distribute its in-house investment funds.
“Although we have been around for half a century and are one of the largest independent asset managers in Switzerland, we are not particularly well known in Zurich. Being conscious that the country’s largest financial place has not waited for us to prosper, we are convinced of the quality of our asset management and we want to introduce our solutions to the German-speaking market and develop our presence in Zurich,” says Damiano Paternó Castello.
NOTZ STUCKI’s range includes more than 20 alternative and traditional Luxembourg funds, most of which are registered in a number of European countries, covering a variety of strategies and asset classes. In 2019, NOTZ STUCKI set-up an “Investment Solutions & Institutional Investors” department, headed by Cédric Dingens, focusing on the promotion and distribution sale of its products to Institutional investors.
“Although for over 50 years, we have been known as pioneers in alternative management, we have also been developing, for more than a decade, a broad range of traditional investment solutions, which have the generation of alpha as their common denominator,” adds Dingens. “Despite being less fashionable, after more than 10 years of rising markets, alternative strategies have, in recent weeks, shown their ability to protect investors’ assets.
At the same time, NOTZ STUCKI intends to continue playing an active role in the consolidation of the Swiss independent management industry. Announced last June, this intention led, in December 2019, to the acquisition of the Geneva-based alternative management company Jam Research, and NOTZ STUCKI is going to continue with this strategy, either by acquiring existing companies or by attracting management teams that wish to join an independent and thriving group.
