Home > Biggest Swiss Bank UBS May Be Split Up, Face More Writedowns
Biggest Swiss Bank UBS May Be Split Up, Face More Writedowns
by Open-Publishing - Monday 14 January 2008Biggest Swiss Bank UBS May Be Split Up, Face More Writedowns
By Carey Sargent
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) — UBS AG, Europe’s biggest bank by assets, may split its investment banking and money management operations into two separately traded companies, SonntagsZeitung reported, without saying where it got the information.
The bank, based in Zurich, may also take another $5 billion to $8 billion in writedowns following the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, the newspaper said. UBS on Dec. 10 announced $10 billion of writedowns and said it will raise $11.5 billion from investors in Singapore and the Middle East.
Under the plan to split the bank, any supporting units needed by both the investment banking and asset management companies would form a joint venture, the newspaper said. UBS, which operates the world’s largest bank for the wealthy, ousted Peter Wuffli as chief executive in July after mortgage-related losses and appointed Marcel Rohner, who ran the private bank.
UBS spokesman Christoph Meier declined to comment directly on the newspaper report. He referred to a Jan. 11 letter to shareholders that said UBS’s strategy has been to focus on wealth management, asset management and investment banking and to make ``sure these businesses operate as one integrated whole.’’
To contact the reporter on this story: Carey Sargent in Geneva at Csargent3@bloomberg.net