Julius Baer, the Swiss private banking group, has recruited two former Sberbank employees to boost its Russian high net worth team, Emerging Markets reports.

Rufat Askerov was latterly an equity trader at Sberbank, while Alexei Dolgikh was in equity sales, the publication said.

Askerov and Dolgikh will reportedly be based in Julius Baer’s Geneva office from March or April. They will join Alexander Muratov, who formerly worked for Russia’s Alfa-Bank but who has been running his own business in London for the past five years.

Julius Baer declined to comment when contacted by this publication. Sberbank had not responded to enquiries from WealthBriefing on the matter at the time of going to press.

Big changes are currently afoot at Julius Baer, which completed the principal closing of its acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s international wealth management business outside the US at the start of the month. As the first step of the integration, Julius Baer acquired Geneva-based Merrill Lynch Bank (Suisse) with AuM of around SFr11 billion, taking Julius Baer’s AuM above the SFr200 billion mark for the first time.

Julius Baer has just reported its 2012 results, posting record assets under management of SFr189 billion ($296.8 billion) at end-December, a rise of 11 per cent over the previous 12 months as a result of stronger markets, SFr9.7 billion of net inflows and a slightly negative currency effect.

Total assets under management, including assets under custody, rose by 7 per cent to SFr277 billion.

Operating income decreased by 1 per cent year-on-year to SFr1.737 billion, while average assets under management rose 8 per cent, resulting in a gross margin of 96 basis points (2011: 105bps). The lower gross margin was a direct consequence of a further reduction in client activity, the firm said.

The bank said its adjusted cost/income ratio rose to 71 per cent (2011: 68 per cent).