Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Bank UBS says it needs three to five years to move back into profitability and show a CHF15 billion profit before taxes. The figure was provided as part of several medium-term goals the bank announced Tuesday morning 17 November before the bank began a day-long information session with investors. The bank noted, as well, that outside observers have overstated the impact of European tax amnesties: “CHF435 billion of total European invested assets, approximately one-quarter, represents cross-border private client assets in countries neighboring Switzerland and in the UK.
“UBS already has a strong onshore presence in these markets, which should enable the firm to retain repatriated funds.” Losses from Europe in wealth management can be recovered through clients in emerging markets, the bank states.
Chairman Oswald Gruebel laid out an ambitious programme for the bank, which says in the press release that it “intends to be the leading client-focused global bank. It will strengthen its position as the number one bank for high net worth (HNW) and ultra high net worth (UHNW) private clients and remain the number one bank in Switzerland.” He was upbeat in noting that the bank’s business volume has stabilized, after dipping early in 2009. Retail business is at the same level as in 2008 and corporate business equals that of 2007.
Links to other sites: UBS medium-term roadmap and Financial Times, Le Temps (Fre)
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 17 November 2009.
Filed under: Business
Tags: corporate, medium-term plan, profits, retail, UBS, Wealth Management
November 29th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
[...] was in the news in mid-November for promising to turn the bank around, setting a goal of pre-tax profits of CHF15 billion in three to five [...]