Investec is gearing itself up to claim its share of Britain’s £825bn private-banking and wealth-management market, but will continue taking pain in the short term as it builds a business to rival the UK’s oldest banks. Earnings in the group’s specialist bank for the 12 months to March would be behind the prior year, dragged lower by the UK bank, CEO Stephen Koseff said at Investec’s customary briefing on Friday ahead of releasing financial results. Investec is expected to have spent about £25m over the year on building its UK private bank. Costs were expected to increase ahead of revenue, as Investec "continues to invest in IT infrastructure and headcount to grow the franchise, notably the build out of the UK private client offering", Koseff said. Investec’s write-off of billions of rand since the 2008 financial crisis on a legacy book that consists largely of UK property assets has not deterred it from that market, with Koseff, saying it was confident it could crack the private ban...
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