UBS sets aside $900 million to repay investors in collapsed Greensill funds

By Noele Illien

ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS will set aside around $900 million to repay investors in Credit Suisse funds that were linked to collapsed supply chain financing firm Greensill Capital, accounting for 90% of what they are owed, UBS said on Monday.

The bank has been seeking to resolve issues it inherited when it acquired Credit Suisse last year after a string of financial problems brought down its long-time rival.

Among them, was a 1.6 billion Swiss franc ($1.80 billion) loss due to the collapse of $10 billion in supply chain finance funds linked to Greensill in 2021.

Also known as reverse factoring, the supply chain finance deals, portrayed as low-risk, allowed companies to get cash from banks and funds such as Greensill Capital to pay suppliers.

UBS said the Credit Suisse Supply Chain Finance Funds have made an offer to buy back units or shares in the fund from the fund's investors.

"Fund investors who choose to accept the offer will be redeemed at 90% of the Net Asset Value determined on 25 February 2021, net of any payments made to the fund investors since then, through newly established feeder subfunds."

Credit Suisse has recovered some of the funds, although around $2.5 billion is outstanding, fund disclosures show.

"UBS AG expects to record a provision of around $0.9 bln on a consolidated basis in connection with the offer in 2Q24," it said in a statement.

The amount will be taken from the $4 billion the bank set aside for potential litigation and regulatory costs when it took over Credit Suisse.

The bank said that meant the offer is not expected to have a material effect on UBS' financial results or common equity tier-one capital ratio (CET1), a measure of financial strength.

"The offer aims to give fund investors certainty, an accelerated exit from their positions and a high level of financial recovery," UBS said.

($1 = 0.8905 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Noele Illien, editing by Andrey Sychev and Barbara Lewis)