Oppenheim sees 20 percent annual client asset growth

GENEVA (Reuters) - German private bank Sal. Oppenheim expects client assets to grow by up to 20 percent each year, a senior executive said, defying a notion that the mature markets it operates in are throttling growth.

Oppenheim, which had 148 billion euros ($209 billion) of assets under management at the end of June, might even grow more rapidly when taking into account cooperation with other banks, the group's private banking head said at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Geneva.

"We try to grow the franchise through adding advisors to the existing network by some 15-20 pct a year," Reinhard Krafft said.

"We have in the last years reached that number or even surpassed the number, and cooperations with others could boost the rate even higher," he said.

Oppenheim, which was founded in 1789, is following its clients as they branch out across Europe and was looking to expand in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly Italy.

"By adding new relationships, new cooperations, by establishing new offices I would say that would give us an additional 5 percent, but it is not the major source of our growth," Krafft said.

Large wealth managers like UBS (UBSN.VX) have invested heavily in emerging markets, but mid-sized private banks like Sal. Oppenheim lack the huge spending power of their larger rivals.

But targeting the same entrepreneurs that also make up a large part of clients in its German home market, the bank still had plenty of opportunities to grow even if avoiding wealth management hot spots such as Russia and Asia.

"If I have the choice between employing a business model in Antwerp or Warsaw, I'd find more Mittelstand clients in Antwerp," Krafft said, using the German word for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In looking for growth, Oppenheim would not rule out making acquisitions, but favored more cautious forms of cooperation like buying a stake in another business, or setting up a joint-venture to win new clients.

"If we have an opportunistic situation and we can make a good purchase, we would obviously analyze that... buying participations is far more our business model. You have to prove you work effectively together," Krafft said.

Oppenheim, which also runs an investment banking unit, has made a spate of minor acquisitions recently including a stake in alternative asset manager GLG Partners and a stake in U.S. mergers and acquisition specialist Miller Buckfire.

In April, Oppenheim also announced it had set up a joint venture with Belgian investment company NPM/CNP.