Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=UBSN%3AVX>, Switzerland's largest bank, is planning a fourth round of job cuts at its securities division to shrink the fixed-income unit after record losses from the global financial crisis.
The Zurich-based bank will exit its real estate and securitization and exotic structured products businesses, Carsten Kengeter<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Carsten%0AKengeter&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>and Jeff Mayer<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Jeff+Mayer&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, co-heads of fixed income, currencies and commodities, said in a memo dated Jan. 21. Todd Morakis<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Todd+Morakis&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, who ran commodities, Sascha Prinz<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Sascha+Prinz&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>and David Sacco<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=David%0ASacco&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, co-heads of global rates, and credit head Chris Ryan<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Chris+Ryan&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>will leave the bank as a result, the memo added. UBS already announced about 6,100 job reductions at the investment bank since October 2007 and is also quitting municipal bonds, proprietary trading and commodities businesses, excluding precious metals. "The end-game result I expect for UBS's investment bank is a business entirely focused on equities, equity underwriting, merger advice and foreign exchange," said Dirk Hoffmann-Becking<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Dirk+Hoffmann-Becking&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Co. UBS may announce "substantial" additional job cuts with fourth-quarter earnings<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=UBSN%3AVX>, which are scheduled for Feb. 10, he said. UBS, the world's biggest manager of money for the wealthy, has eliminated 9,000 positions companywide, or 11 percent of the workforce, since the credit crunch began. The bank declined to provide details on the latest round of planned cuts. The bank rose as much as 9.7 percent in Swiss trading, and was up 71 centimes, or 5.5 percent, to 13.53 Swiss francs by 2:30 p.m. The stock fell 65 percent in the past 12 months, valuing the company at 39.7 billion francs ($34.4 billion). Government Aid Banks worldwide have slashed more than 242,000 positions since the beginning of the crisis, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Credit Suisse Group AG<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=CSGN%3AVX>, UBS's largest Swiss competitor, announced 5,300 reductions last month, including 3,800 at the securities unit, after about 3 billion francs of losses in October and November. UBS would have to cut more than 8,000 of the 17,000 positions at the investment bank by 2010 to achieve a 15 percent return on equity, a reduction that "clearly looks unachievable," Kian Abouhossein<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Kian+Abouhossein&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in a note last week. The debt unit reorganization follows Kengeter and Mayer's review of a business that was mainly responsible for $48.6 billion of writedowns and losses since the start of the credit crisis. The losses, the most by any European bank, forced UBS to accept $59.2 billion in government aid. 'Radical Change' Financial institutions worldwide have reported more than $1 trillion of credit losses and writedowns since the start of 2007, leading governments to prop up banks including Citigroup Inc.<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=C%3AUS>, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Commerzbank AG. At UBS, the debt sales and trading business had negative revenue of 28.4 billion francs in the first nine months of 2008. The division will rely more on client business, cutting risk- taking and assets. "We have concluded that radical change is needed" to return to profitability at the fixed-income, commodities and currencies division, Kengeter and Mayer said in the memo. The reorganized debt business will have three units: macro, which will include foreign exchange, money markets and rates, credit and the workout group. Macro will be co-headed by Reto Stadelmann<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Reto%0AStadelmann&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, who will focus on foreign exchange, and Yvan Ducrot<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Yvan+Ducrot&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, who will manage rates. The credit and the workout groups will be headed by Kengeter, 41, and Mayer, 49, respectively, on an interim basis. Emerging markets will be headed by Ritesh Dutta<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Ritesh+Dutta&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>. "These changes will enable us to leverage our core strengths while relying on lower risk and balance sheet utilization," Jerker Johansson<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Jerker+Johansson&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, 52, head of the investment bank, said in a separate statement. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acPgceo1BKmk&refer=home --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
