* Will apply for bank in HK to offer more exposure to yuan
* Sees 10-20 pct growth in AUM in Asia, Mideast
* Says private banks unlikely to give up more assets in Asia
* Positive on Asia FX and firms exposed to domestic demand (Updates with details, quotes)
By Neil Chatterjee and Kevin Lim
SINGAPORE, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer said it is applying to open a bank in Hong Kong and hopes to get approval by the end of next year, to offer clients increased exposure China and its currency.
Julius Baer, Switzerland's largest dedicated wealth manager that competes with UBS and Citigroup in Asia, already has an advisory business in Hong Kong, but not a banking license.
"If you do not have the bank to take in the cash and provide the leverage, you cannot do well in Hong Kong and China," Thomas Meier, a member of the bank's executive board and its head of Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
He said it was just a matter of time before the yuan becomes fully convertible and available to investors outside China, who at the moment can only get indirect exposure through Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks or currency derivatives.
Meier said the Hong Kong move meant it would add more people but there were no fixed numbers for hiring, with competition for experienced relationship managers once again heating up in Asia as banks target a growing pool of entrepreneurs.
He said he was targeting growth of 10-20 percent in assets under management for Asia and the Middle East, picking out Greater China and Indonesia as having particularly good prospects for tapping high net-worth individuals.
"We have declared Asia is our second home and this is where we will focus," he told Reuters in Singapore.
Julius Baer earlier this year bought ING Group NV's Swiss private banking assets and Meier said it had looked at ING's Asia wealth business, which was clinched by Singapore's OCBC for $1.5 billion or 5.8 percent of the assets.
Further private bank assets were unlikely to come on offer in Asia, despite pressure on some European banks to divest, because everyone was keen to stay in the world's fastest-growing region, he added.
"We would love to see more transactions that we could look at. In a growth market you will not see consolidation -- that's the problem," he said. "Europe is probably the best place for future transactions."
Meier was also bullish on Asian assets, recommending clients go for Asian currencies such as the Singapore dollar and firms exposed to domestic demand in the region or that are sector leaders in robust countries.
A shift by Middle Eastern clients, traditionally investors in U.S. and European equities, to look more at Asia was also underway, he said.
But he cautioned equity markets were richly priced and nervous about negative news, such as Dubai's debt troubles, and recommended rich clients stayed well diversified in asset classes and geographies, with plenty of gold and cash in hand.
"Have we really understood what happened last year?" he said. "It's not wrong if you stand a bit on the sidelines. We're going to see a rocky road." (Editing by Lincoln Feast)