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SCMP Reporter

Edmond Safra, 67, who was killed yesterday in his apartment in Monte Carlo, Monaco, was one of the world's wealthiest bankers.

 The secretive, Lebanese-born Safra built a worldwide financial empire founded on a network of Middle Eastern and United States clients.

 Republic National Bank of New York was the flagship of Safra's empire. The bank formed the major part of a US$9.8 billion sale transaction with HSBC Holdings concluded early last month.

 After a prolonged dispute over the terms, Safra had to personally bear a $450 million reduction in the original price. This followed a two-month investigation by Republic into alleged mispricing of securities by its trading division and lowered the original purchase price of $10.3 billion.

 The bank offers services to individuals, corporations and financial institutions throughout Asia, the Caribbean and North and South America.

 It also has extensive treasury and foreign-exchange businesses, with a valuable credit and transaction processing capability.

 Its consumer banking business, gradually established through a series of acquisitions and takeovers, has also developed into a lucrative franchise, and the bank has also become a key player in on-line banking.

 Republic New York's 49 per cent-owned Safra Republic, based in Luxembourg, adds a private banking business that is so highly regarded by investors that it became the first institution to launch a 1,000-year bond in 1997.

 The issue, which expires on October 15, 1997, was welcomed by investors, who saw the new paper as being as close as possible to equity, and the first of such a long-term issue since the bank was floated on the Luxembourg stock exchange in 1988.

 Suffering from Parkinson's disease, Safra saw the sale of his businesses to HSBC as a chance for him to retire from a highly active business career, and pursue more private endeavours.

 These included interests ranging from art collecting to a foundation launched last year to support research into Parkinson's disease.

 The Edmond J Safra Research Foundation has received US$50 million from the Safra family, and established an international scientific research foundation to evaluate requests for grants.

 Safra first caught public attention when his name hit the headlines in 1989, after American Express was forced to issue a public apology for investigating and spreading rumours about Safra, a former chairman of American Express Bank.

 In what was a humiliation for American Express, it paid $8 million to Safra's favourite charities, which in turn sparked a shareholder suit against the American Express management.

 Safra was to have become the honorary chairman of Safra Republic Holdings, taking a much reduced role in the company.

 He was expected to continue to work closely with his brothers, Moise and Joseph-Richard, who are the principal owners of Grupo Safra, a financial and industrial group in Brazil, where most of the family live.

 His nephew Jacob Safra owns Encyclopedia Britannica.

OBITUARY 



Secretive banker in world's wealthiest