Credit Suisse, the rockstar private banker Shane Galligan and his rich clients
Credit Suisse’s Australian private wealth business is one of the jewels in its crown – featuring an enviable list of ultra high net worth clients.
This time last year Credit Suisse chief executive Richard Gibbs and senior client partner Shane Galligan were enjoying happier times, posing for a photo with billionaire Ryan Stokes, who was giving a private address to a dinner in Sydney for the 25th annual Credit Suisse investment conference.
As The Australian’s Damon Kitney noted at the time, Stokes’ address to some 100 attendees – including other rich listers and A-list clients of the Swiss bank — was the product of a long-time relationship between Credit Suisse and the Stokes family, both Kerry and Ryan.
While Credit Suisse’s private wealth business is run by the Sydney based former Macquarie executive and graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst Michael Marr, it is the Melbourne based Shane Galligan who is the private banker to some of Australia’s wealthiest people.
Confident, smart and highly energetic, with one of the best digital Rolodex’s in the country, Galligan is one of the key players in Credit Suisse’s private wealth business – one of the key assets of the Australian arm of the organisation now being sold to UBS.
Founded in 2007, Credit Suisse’s Australian private wealth business has an enviable list of ultra high net worth clients, with an estimated $28bn of assets under advice.
The ties between the Stokes family and Credit Suisse go back a long way — with Galligan having advised Stokes, his private company ACE and the Stokes’ controlled Seven in Australia for more than a decade.
When the Australian’s annual Rich List comes out on Friday, edited by John Stensholt, a good many of its top 250 members are believed to be clients of Credit Suisse, including Alex Waislitz, Ruffy Geminder, Zac Fried, Tania Austin, Sam Tarascio and Lindsay Fox and family.
Described by some as the “rockstar private banker”, Galligan has also been close in the past to once high-flying Lex Greensill and UK steel making entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta.
With Credit Suisse’s global business now being sold to UBS, one of the big questions being asked is whether UBS in Australia will keep the successful private wealth business built up locally.
Some argue that having got out of the private wealth business in 2015, UBS’s Australian arm would not want to keep the Credit Suisse private wealth business in Australia.
Others argue that it is the jewel in the crown, well run and highly profitable, with irreplaceable personal connections which UBS Australia would welcome.
They point out that the Credit Suisse private wealth arm, which was set up in Australia in 2007, is run on a different basis than other private wealth businesses of the past, focusing on salary and bonuses rather than commissions.
While it took some time for this model to get established, they argue that the Credit Suisse Australian private wealth business is now highly profitable.
UBS Australia is making no comment, strictly bound by the statements coming from its global headquarters in Switzerland.
In an interview with The Australian this week, former Credit Suisse Australia chief executive John Wylie named Galligan as one of the key people that UBS would need to make sure it kept as it took over the local Credit Suisse operations.
He described Galligan as running “an exceptional business.”
“There are some good businesses and some good people there (at Credit Suisse Australia),” he said.
“UBS would be well advised to look after those people.”
Galligan has been in Hong Kong this week for the Credit Suisse conference which was once a key part of the annual corporate agenda in the Asian corporate calendar.
Speakers attending include Fortescue Metals Group founder and executive chairman Andrew Forrest.
Galligan, who joined Credit Suisse’s private wealth business as it was being founded in 2007 from the National Australia Bank, has been a long time student of the entrepreneurial mindset.
He is quoted in some promotional material as saying: “Being an entrepreneur is not a job or a career, it is a philosophy.”
In his interview last year with Damon Kitney for The Australian, Galligan argued that company founders could often “see things that others couldn’t.”
“They can also act more quickly than others. That’s what separates entrepreneurial companies.
“It’s that ability to see things early. We see it with entrepreneurial led companies in Australia. They’ve got that vision for change, they drive that vision through their businesses.”
UBS made a strategic decision to get out of private wealth in Australia in 2015 spinning it off through a management buyout to form a new company, Crestone, headed by UBS’s local wealth chief, Mike Chisholm, who still heads up the business — raising questions about whether it would want to keep that side of the business.
During this time of uncertainty, the bank’s private wealth business and its stable of high net worth and ultra high networth clients – as well as its key staff – are now being eyed by other players.
Koda Capital founder and chairman Steve Tucker says the Australian business could be attractive to several buyers if it were to be put up for sale.
“If UBS Australia remain consistent with their current strategy you could assume they will have to consider whether or not they stay involved in private wealth,” he told The Australian in an interview.
“While uncertainty remains as to how the deal plays out, if there was to be a divestment or view to move out of private wealth its likely several domestic players would be interested in the business.
“There has been significant international interest in investing in private wealth in Australia,” he said.
This included the announcement last year that US based Emigrant Partners had bought a minority stake in Koda.
“Maintaining Koda’s independence is paramount however Koda is always interested in considering expanding via acquisition if quality assets become available in Australia.”
“The private wealth landscape in Australia is very attractive to Koda as wealth transfer between generations increases, access to new innovative strategies and markets grows, and the focus on ESG for wealthy families continues to gain traction.
Former UBS executive Mike Chisholm sold the business to private wealth giant the LGT Group in June 2022.
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