ZURICH - Swiss private bank Julius Baer said on Thursday that inflows of client cash during the first half of the year had improved, with wealthy customers' concerns about the losses caused by the collapse of property giant Signa fading.

The wealth manager had a tumultuous start to 2024, with its CEO Philipp Rickenbacher exiting after the company reported losses of 586 million Swiss francs ($663.80 million) on loans to Signa.

Julius Baer, which this week named Goldman Sachs partner Stefan Bollinger as its new CEO, said net new money totalled 3.7 billion Swiss francs in the six months to the end of June, picking up from 1 billion in the first four months and slightly above analysts' expectations of 3.5 billion francs.

Still, it was a sharp drop compared to the 7.1 billion franc inflow a year earlier, and an unfavourable contrast with Swiss rival EFG International which attracted net new money of 5.2 billion francs in the six months for an annualised growth rate of 7.3%.

"After a challenging start to the year, Julius Baer is now regaining its momentum," said interim CEO Nic Dreckmann.

"July...is only two to three weeks old, we've seen a continuous good momentum," he told reporters.

When asked if clients' concerns following the Signa episode had now abated, he said: "That's absolutely the case, we've passed that one."

Analysts noted the acceleration in net new money during May and June, although it was still at a low level for Julius Baer.

"It shows the bank is still trying to rebuild confidence and this is going to take some time," said Bank Vontobel analyst Andreas Venditti.

First-half adjusted net profit fell to 459.7 million Swiss francs ($520.79 million) from 541 million francs a year earlier, missing the consensus forecast of 490 million mainly due to a big drop in net income. ($1 = 0.8828 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Revill, Editing by Miranda Murray, Kirsten Donovan)