Today, the finance empire behind Liechtenstein’s Prince Hans-Adam II is flourishing from its main area of expertise: managing money for the world’s super-rich.
“We continue to look,” Olivier de Perregaux, 58, chief executive officer of LGT Private Banking, said in a recent interview. “We are, however, primarily focusing on organic growth.”LGT’s rapid growth mirrors a comeback of sorts for Liechtenstein, a tiny Alpine nation of 39,000 inhabitants that once ranked among the world’s most notorious tax havens.
“We are hiring intensely,” de Perregaux said. “The Credit Suisse-UBS deal is by no means the only growth vector we have.” The prince and his family’s wealth originated with land acquired in the 12th century that at one point spread across a wide swath of what’s now Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. LGT started in 1921 with 10 employees, and the royal family bought it about a decade later, during the Great Depression.
They’ve also amassed a major art collection with works from Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens and Bartolome Esteban Murillo, though their finance empire is the driving force behind their fortune. LGT’s value has surged almost 25% this year, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index, outperforming the MSCI World Bank Index.
Prince Hans-Adam’s second-oldest son, Max, a 54 year-old former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker, is now chairman of LGT Group, which makes most of its money from wealth management and also has an impact-investment arm.