Hugo Lasat is no stranger to the grand duchy’s financial sector. His career, which began in 1986, took him to Luxembourg where he was CEO of Dexia Asset Management from 2001 to 2007--a company renamed Candriam in 2014--and a member of the board of directors of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg from 2002 to 2005 and of Dexia from 2007 to 2008. He is also a professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, specialising in financial markets and sustainable finance.

Marc Fassone: You have just been appointed head of the Degroof Petercam group. What kind of manager are you?

Hugo Lasat: I attach great importance to teamwork. My credo is to work together to manage and develop. It's an entrepreneurial approach based on empowering people and simplifying the hierarchy. Without this resulting in disorganisation. All this with a certain rhythm. I like to see the results of the actions taken become reality quite quickly. I think that any effective leadership style must be in harmony with the culture of the company in which it is exercised. The Degroof Petercam Group is a group of talented people and experts where people make the difference. I think my management style fits perfectly with these values and works well with the group's business model.

What are your objectives for Degroof Petercam?

Before talking about objectives, we have to look at the positioning and the components of the group. Our positioning is relatively unique in Europe. We have been able to combine businesses that many of our competitors envy and wish to develop: private banking, institutional asset management, asset services and investment banking. Taken separately, these four businesses have their own raison d'être. Combined, they offer significant synergies.

If you add to that the fact that we have the experts and the talent to grow these businesses, I would say that we have an enviable starting position and a well-diversified client base. A rather unique position that we can develop both on our domestic market, BeNeLuxFra, and internationally on a European scale.

Then, business line by business line, the objectives are clear. For private banking, it is a question of consolidating our positioning and our offer in Belgium, Luxembourg and France and, importantly, developing international private banking from Luxembourg. Luxembourg is the centre for Luxembourg clients on the one hand and for the international development of the Degroof Petercam group in private banking on the other. This is clearly a good position. It is a strategy that we have started and that we will continue to develop.

In asset management, DPAM [Degroof Petercam Asset Management] has become an international brand, a leading player. It is an asset manager that is now playing in the Champions League. The objective is to continue its current international expansion.

On the asset services side, by the end of 2021 we had nearly €60bn in assets under administration and a good growth trajectory both for internal asset management (DPAM) via fund administration on the one hand and for the external market (third parties) whose clientele is international.

Finally, for investment banking--the trading room on the one hand within our global market activities and corporate finance including M&A on the other--we have the ambition to be ‘one phone call away from doing business’. Helping entrepreneurs when they want to buy or sell a company, go public or expand is very relevant for us.

You mentioned the significant synergies that can exist between these businesses. What do you mean by this?

Let me give you an example. For me, the ideal situation, which occurs from time to time, is that when we accompany a client who wants to sell or acquire a company [via the investment banking business] that the fruit of this operation can be managed by our private bank.

If the private bank can in turn use its internal asset manager for certain funds in the construction of portfolios, that's even better. And if these initial funds can be managed by our asset services business line, then the loop is complete...

So you can see the whole value chain: a cross-selling that strengthens our development potential and allows the client to have a single point of contact.

If you think about it, all our businesses are support businesses. We combine the private banking and investment house businesses.

How important is the Luxembourg site for your group?

I have an affinity with Luxembourg where I spent several years. And the group is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. In Luxembourg we are fortunate to have a solid and profitable bank in which our four business lines operate. One of these is private banking, which is a source of growth on which we are counting a lot. Moreover, when you look at all the geopolitical and financial uncertainties that surround us, I think that a stable place like Luxembourg clearly has a card to play.

We have a very strong asset services team, employing 140 of the 390 people based here and administering €59.7bn.

There is a great bank in Luxembourg that the shareholder clearly wants to develop, given this interesting starting point and more than satisfactory profitability ratios.

What were your first steps at the head of the bank?

Before taking up my position, I was the CEO of DPAM, the asset management arm of the group. But even though you come from the inside and think you know the firm, I wanted to meet as many employees and clients as possible while respecting health regulations. This was not always easy during the pandemic. Listening is really important to me. I don't want to position myself as someone who is going to turn everything upside down. I am someone who loves to manage and develop and I want to build on what has been done. Even if I admit to having an impatient side when it comes to certain strategic priorities.

What exactly are your priorities?

My first priority is to ensure the successful roll-out of our new banking platform and portfolio management system, 'the bank's engine'. This will allow us to have a single system in the group that will allow us to improve our efficiency and interactions with our customers. This will be a big step forward for our company. This migration will be invisible to the customer. We started in mid-2021 and it will keep us busy throughout 2022.

My second priority is to make Degroof Petercam an 'employer of choice'. We are a house of talent, of experts. We clearly want to position ourselves as such.

A third element that is close to my heart is sustainable finance. The group has almost 20 years of experience in this area. The challenge is to continue to be avant-garde and to defend our leadership position as a player in sustainable finance. I am fundamentally convinced that financial management and sustainable management can be combined in a value proposition for clients in different business lines. Financial management and sustainable management are not in opposition to each other. Take the example of portfolio performance: I think we can offer a double alpha,  [both] financial and sustainable. Financial institutions are frankly relevant actors that can help to achieve the objectives that politics or society want.

There is a lot of talk about the need to consolidate the European banking sector. What is your opinion on the subject?

Since I have been in the financial sector, there has been talk of the need for consolidation in the banking sector. And I have a perhaps somewhat atypical opinion on the subject. I think that if there are possible economies of scale, there are also diseconomies of scale. I think that we are heading towards a polarisation of the market between very large groups and financial companies specialised according to a niche, a region or specific expertise. I find it quite interesting that we are pushing towards consolidation only to realise that some groups or institutions have become de facto too big.

In my opinion, consolidation is only necessary when you realise that you are not the right size to do your job. It must depend on the business. We are not part of this movement.

You will announce your results in May. What will be the main trends?

That's a question I can't answer. But there is a fairly high correlation between our results and the evolution of the financial markets...

What does 2022 look like then?

It's difficult to say at the moment. Our commercial momentum has been building in 2021. And this momentum continued at the beginning of the year in all our businesses. But obviously the Ukrainian crisis has disrupted that. The war is having an impact on the markets and therefore on our business. The priority at the moment is to protect our clients' assets and to support them in all our businesses. And we all hope, I think, to find a quick solution to this crisis which is both financial and human.

Originally published in French by and translated for Delano.