Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has released details of its bailout package fund for ailing UBS, which will be registered in Bern, and not in the Cayman Islands as originally suggested.
The SNB notes that federal and Bern authorities acted quickly to make it possible to create a structure comparable to the one envisaged for the Cayman Islands, an offshore banking centre.
“The special purpose vehicle will acquire UBS assets up to a maximum amount of $60 billion at prices as per 30 September 2008, based either on the book value or a value determined by the SNB on the basis of independent opinions,” says an SNB statement. “The lower value will apply. The transfer of the assets to the special purpose vehicle is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2009. UBS will be managing the assets of the special purpose vehicle until further notice.”
The new fund is a two-party limited partnership with a general partner who bears unlimited liability and will also be managing the SPV, and a partner with limited liability. Both of these will be wholly owned by the SNB.
The central bank’s explanation for the funding operation: “The SPV will be funded by UBS with equity in the amount of 10% of the purchase price of the assets, with a maximum of $6 billion. UBS is injecting a maximum of $6 billion of equity capital by acquiring an option to purchase the special purpose vehicle after the SNB loan has been repaid in full. The agreement that the SNB will receive profits of $1 billion plus 50% of any remaining equity after full repayment of the loan is still valid.”
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 26 November 2008.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: bailout, SNB, Swiss banking, UBS



























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