Barclays Plc (BARC) is targeting millionaires in emerging markets and squeezing more revenue from super-rich clients with at least 50 million pounds ($79.3 million) of investable assets.

Average revenue per client at the super-rich unit increased 41 percent last year, said Stefanie Drews, European head of key clients and family offices at the London-based bank. Barclays has 1,800 so-called key clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Drews said, declining to give further details on revenue earned or assets under management.

Barclays’s wealth business is in the middle of a five-year 350 million-pound investment program as it tries to close the gap on HSBC Holdings Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG. Barclays, which gets almost a third of its assets from U.K. customers, said the super-rich in the Middle East, Africa and Russia offer some of the greatest potential.

“The Middle East has probably been the biggest area of growth,” Drews said in an interview at the firm’s London offices, citing oil wealth and political turmoil as key drivers. “Africa is a huge area of opportunity.”

Source: Business Story