UBS - UBS Group AG
11.98 +0.04 (0.34%)
After hours: 5:49PM EST
| Previous close | 12.02 |
| Open | 11.99 |
| Bid | 11.92 x 1800 |
| Ask | 11.95 x 34100 |
| Day's range | 11.94 - 12.02 |
| 52-week range | 10.12 - 13.62 |
| Volume | 1639696 |
| Avg. volume | 2,565,243 |
| Market cap | 43B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.28 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 11.59 |
| EPS (TTM) | 1.03 |
| Earnings date | N/A |
| Forward dividend & yield | 0.69 (5.71%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-05-06 |
| 1y target est | 13.70 |
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 1-HSBC Swiss unit to pay $192 mln in latest U.S. tax evasion deal
The Swiss private banking unit of HSBC Holdings Plc will pay $192.4 million to resolve a U.S. probe of its role in helping wealthy Americans evade taxes by using undeclared Swiss bank accounts, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday. The DoJ's deal with HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA is the latest in which numerous Swiss-based banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse Group, have paid billions of dollars in settlements and penalties for conspiring to help rich Americans dodge taxes.
- Reuters
UBS must defend against U.S. lawsuit over 'catastrophic' mortgage losses
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected UBS Group AG's bid to dismiss a U.S. government lawsuit accusing Switzerland's largest bank of causing "catastrophic" investor losses in residential mortgage-backed securities sold before the 2008 financial crisis. U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn, New York, said the Department of Justice sufficiently alleged that from 2005 to 2007, UBS intended to defraud or acted recklessly toward investors who bought securities backed by more than $41 billion (£31.96 billion) of subprime and other risky loans in 40 offerings. Many of the loans were made by now-defunct lenders including Countrywide Home Loans, American Home Mortgage, Fremont Investment & Loan, IndyMac and New Century.
- Business Wire
UBS Commences Exchange Offers for Eight ETRACS ETNs
UBS AG announced today that it has commenced exchange offers ("Exchange Offers") for eight ETRACS Series A ETNs (collectively, the "Series A ETNs") for corresponding ETRACS Series B ETNs (collectively, the "Series B ETNs"), as set forth in Table-1 below. The full schedule of exchange dates and exchange offer settlement dates is listed in Table-2 below.
- Business Wire
UBS Declares Coupon Payments on 15 Monthly Pay ETRACS Exchange Traded Notes
UBS Investment Bank today announced coupon payments for 15 ETRACS Exchange Traded Notes (the "ETNs"), all traded on the NYSE Arca.
- Zacks
UBS Group Contemplates Restructuring Asset Management Unit
UBS Group (UBS) to revamp the company's asset management unit, in a bid to boost its profitability.
- Bloomberg
UBS Weighs Fund Platform Sale in Asset Management Revamp
(Bloomberg) -- UBS Group AG’s asset management unit is considering a sale of its fund platform, as new head Suni Harford tries to turn around the underperforming division, people with knowledge of the matter said.Switzerland’s largest bank has been talking to potential buyers for the business, known as UBS Fondcenter, in recent weeks, according to the people. A possible sale could fetch at least 500 million Swiss francs ($506 million), one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.UBS Fondcenter provides access to over 65,000 funds from hundreds of providers of mutual funds, ETFs and alternative investment funds. A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment.The Swiss bank has been exploring options for its asset management business over the past year including a merger with Deutsche Bank AG’s DWS. After going through a restructuring under former chief Ulrich Koerner, the unit repeatedly missed a key profitability target. Like other bank-owned asset managers, the division is under pressure from new regulations such as MIFID II and a protracted shift toward passive investing.The sale of Fondcenter could be another step to improve profitability at the asset management unit. UBS’s biggest competitor, Credit Suisse Group AG, did a similar deal earlier this year when it combined its fund platform InvestLab with private equity-backed Allfunds.Iqbal Khan, Credit Suisse’s international wealth management head at the time, was personally negotiating the deal shortly before he left the Swiss bank and joined UBS.\--With assistance from Marion Halftermeyer.To contact the reporter on this story: Jan-Henrik Förster in London at jforster20@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Dinesh Nair at dnair5@bloomberg.net, Aaron Kirchfeld, Dale CroftsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Yahoo Finance UK
Frozen £2.5bn property fund could be 'first domino to fall'
UBS warns clients that other UK property funds could be gated after M&G Investments stopped withdrawals from a £2.5bn fund on Wednesday.
- Reuters
Swiss court outlines rules for helping countries chase tax cheats
Switzerland's highest court spelled out the steps foreign authorities must take if they want legal assistance in chasing tax cheats as it released the written verdict on why it made UBS Group in July share client data with France. The Federal Court ruled that Switzerland's biggest bank must hand over historical data on more than 40,000 client accounts to French tax authorities in a landmark case keenly watched by other countries seeking similar information. The ruling was also closely watched for the impact it might have on the Swiss bank's separate 4.5 billion euro ($5 billion) legal battle with France in a criminal case over alleged tax avoidance by UBS clients.
- Bloomberg
World’s Most Famous Hedge Funds Get Cold Shoulder in China
(Bloomberg) -- Three years after China opened its 2.5 trillion yuan ($355 billion) hedge fund market to global asset managers, the industry is discovering just how hard it is to win over the country’s investors.BlackRock Inc., Man Group Plc and 20 other foreign firms licensed to run Chinese hedge funds -- or private securities funds, as they’re known locally -- amassed around 5.8 billion yuan of assets as a group till August, according to data compiled by Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment & Management Co. The meager haul -- amounting to 0.2% of hedge fund assets in China -- reflects a host of challenges.International names like BlackRock don’t resonate much in China’s crowded market of close to 9,000 hedge funds, which has its own set of local stars. The world’s largest money manager is routinely confused with private-equity major Blackstone Group Inc. UBS Group AG’s shared Swiss roots with Credit Suisse Group AG mean their Chinese abbreviations are just one similar-meaning character apart, also prompting mix-ups.The limited name recognition is compounded by distribution hurdles. It all suggests a long wait before China turns into a meaningful source of profit for international money managers, which are desperate for new avenues of growth as clients in developed markets shift toward low-fee investments.“Building a brand in China is definitely a challenge for some foreign players,” said Hersh Gandhi, Man Group’s managing director for Asia Pacific ex-Japan. “We’ve been thoughtful about the strategies we want to run and the market segments we want to be in, and have sized our operations accordingly.”Man Group declined to comment on its assets and profitability in China. It, UBS and BlackRock oversee between 100 million yuan to 1 billion yuan each, according to ranges from PaiPaiWang, which tracks hedge funds in the country.Winton Group Ltd. has the biggest share of onshore money -- roughly 2.5 billion yuan -- after spending several years building an advisory business in China before receiving its private fund management approval in 2018.Excluding Winton puts the average for the rest at about 170 million yuan, 36% below the local mean, according to data from the Asset Management Association of China and Bloomberg calculations. Nine manage less than 100 million yuan, including Fullerton Fund Management Co. and Invesco, which both won licenses more than two years ago. Three, which have yet to launch a product or did so only recently, aren’t included in the calculation.Invesco declined to comment on investment flows, saying in an e-mailed statement that the company is “committed” to its mainland China business. Fullerton didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.Fund raising difficulties are common, according to Yan Hong, director of the China Hedge Fund Research Center at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance.Read more: In China’s Hedge Fund Industry, Global Managers Are a Tough SellForeign managers probably can’t make much money managing less than 1 billion yuan, given the operational and compliance costs, he said. But big global players with deep pockets may view such initial difficulties as manageable while they wait for longer-term opportunities.The task of building a presence was complicated by a rule change last year that blocked easy access to retail investors through securities firms and banks, forcing funds to go down a more costly path of chasing qualified individual investors.Local ChampionsAnother stumbling block is the extreme bets some local managers are willing to make to produce the stunning returns known to draw Chinese investors.Read more: Hedge Funds Chasing 400% Return Show Risk in China’s Wild MarketChina’s five-year champion among private stock funds -- Shanghai Panyao Asset Management Ltd. -- boasts a 515% cumulative return (the No. 2 fund is up 494%), according to PaiPaiWang. The top 10 performers among the largest local players had an average return of 37% in the first 10 months of 2019.While comparable data for foreign funds isn’t available, BlackRock’s first product returned about 10.3% as of Nov. 15 since its inception in May 2018, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the fund can’t be promoted to investors other than institutions or qualified clients. That compares to an 8.6% decline in the Shanghai Composite Index during the period.The company didn’t respond to a request for comment on its assets under management in China, or its products’ returns.Wang Linggang, who was BlackRock’s China compliance officer from 2017 until earlier this year, said foreign funds “have to accept” the local common practice of ceding part of management fees to distribution channels to ensure sales. They also need to follow the stricter anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism requirements of their home jurisdictions, whose tougher criteria may cost them clients, he wrote in an Aug. 13 article on the Wechat account of consultancy Financial Regulation & Law.Return ExpectationsTo be sure, the reputation global managers have for being more stable and disciplined is starting to attract high-net-worth clients, particularly those wary of irregularities and performance volatility among local funds.UBS, which entered China in the 1990s and is among the largest foreign players in this space, launched its fifth product in July -- a fund of hedge funds offering, where investors can put money into products managed by both local and foreign hedge funds in China.The private funds unit has tapped into UBS’s existing distribution channels and leverages its wealth management clients, according to Adrian Chen, general manager of UBS Asset Management (Shanghai) Ltd. “The client base available now in China already presents us with a big market,” he said.Kevin Wu, who works in Shanghai’s financial services industry, plowed 1 million yuan into a BlackRock product in August last year, diversifying his portfolio to try out a global player with a relatively low fee.The investment has so far yielded about 15% after fees, beating local stock indexes but trailing returns of some of Wu’s own share holdings in companies like Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. and Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., both of which jumped at least 40% over the period.“It depends on your expectations,” the 42-year-old said by phone. “As long as they can yield around 12% a year, I can totally accept that.”High returns remain a draw among most though, prompting a constant churn and defeating regulatory efforts to encourage longer-term horizons. China’s hedge fund investors hold for an average of six months compared with around four years globally, estimates from PaiPaiWang and Preqin Ltd. show.Patience PaysThe “velocity of money in and out” is high even by retail standards, said Man Group’s Gandhi. “Foreign players need to accept this as part of the local landscape.”The foreign options available are also expanding as more funds are drawn in by the roughly 60 trillion yuan of investable assets China’s high-net-worth individuals hold. Many are also looking ahead as the Asian nation looks to unshackle its 14 trillion yuan mutual funds industry.Five overseas companies have made inquiries with Fangda Partners about hiring the law firm to apply for a private securities fund management license, according to partner Ren Zhiyi, who has represented Bridgewater Associates LP in China. LLinks Law Offices, which advised BlackRock, has about the same number of clients making preparations, partner Sandra Lv said.Read more on the overhaul to regulations in China’s private funds market here“This is a huge market with a lot of potential,” said Natasha Xie, a Shanghai-based partner with JunHe LLP, who says the number of registered foreign hedge funds may reach around 30 by the end of 2020.All three law firms declined to identify individual clients.Eastspring Investments, Prudential Plc’s asset management arm, registered as a private fund last year and is focusing on establishing a track record with its first product launched in April, said Bernard Teo, the head of corporate strategy. It took more than six months of interviewing for the firm to hire a local fund manager with the right mix of performance and risk controls, he said.Teo may need to brave the industry’s talent crunch again as he weighs adding local multi-asset and quantitative teams. “You certainly need to have the patience for the long term,” he said.(Adds comment from former BlackRock executive in 17th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Nishant Kumar, Evelyn Yu and Jun Luo.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Zhang Dingmin in Beijing at dzhang14@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net, Candice ZachariahsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Business Wire
UBS Declares Quarterly Coupon Payments On Exchange Traded Notes: AMU and AMUB
UBS Investment Bank today announced coupon payments for the ETRACS Alerian MLP Index ETN (NYSE Arca: “AMU”) and ETRACS Alerian MLP Index ETN Series B (NYSE Arca: “AMUB”), both traded on the NYSE Arca.
- Zacks
Near-Term Outlook Looks Gloomy for Foreign Bank Stocks
Near-Term Outlook Looks Gloomy for Foreign Bank Stocks
- Bloomberg
UBS’s Ermotti Says No Choice in Spreading Negative Rate Pain
(Bloomberg) -- UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti warned more wealthy clients could be at risk of feeling the pain of negative interest rates, while keeping a protective hand over his smallest depositors.As central banks in Europe push interest rates even further below zero, UBS may have “no choice” but to pass on more of the costs, Ermotti said in an interview from Beijing. He emphasized the bank “will not pass negative rates to smaller clients, the personal banking clients.”“Right now, the threshold is very high still,” Ermotti said. “It’s difficult to make a prediction right now, but we are quite convinced it’s not going to go down to smaller investors.” The bank currently charges clients for deposits of more than 500,000 euros ($554,000) or 2 million Swiss francs ($2 million).While central banks around the world are reducing interest rates in response to slowing economic growth, Europe is particularly hard hit. The region has experimented with negative rates for several years now. The ECB, the Danish, and Swiss central banks have all sought to stimulate growth by charging banks to deposit funds, rather than lending to consumers or businesses.The policies have eroded margins on lending and forced more and more firms to pass on charges for excess cash. Credit Suisse Group AG has said that clients with deposits greater than 1 million euros or 2 million francs would incur a negative rate. Deutsche Bank plans to pass on negative rates to large corporate customers or wealthy clients, but will spare most retail clients.Those headwinds have weighed on shares of European banks, with UBS falling about 13% in the past year. The firm also had to contend with increasing competition for wealthy clients, slowing economic growth, as well as a legal dispute in France.Ermotti spoke at the New Economy Forum, an event organized by a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. The UBS CEO and executives from rivals such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are in Beijing this week as China prepares to start allowing full ownership of local firms by foreign companies next year, a key step in opening its $40 trillion financial markets.To tap fresh sources of growth, UBS has had a presence in China longer than most Wall Street firms, and it was the first foreign firms to win approval for a majority stake in a local securities venture as the country opened its financial sector. But the bank also faces stiff competition from local Chinese competitors, which are quickly adding assets under management.After getting all the necessary licenses, Ermotti, 59, said he was bullish on taking his business in China to the “next level of growth,” while cautioning that this will “take years.” The bank doesn’t necessarily need to own 100% of its venture in China because it has been working well with its partner there, Ermotti said.“We are firmly of the opinion that the secular trend supporting China and particular also our business are very good,” Ermotti said. “We will continue to invest and grow.”(Updates with China strategy from eighth paragraph.)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Marion Halftermeyer in Zurich at mhalftermeye@bloomberg.net;Jun Luo in Shanghai at jluo6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, ;Candice Zachariahs at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net, Christian BaumgaertelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Why Is UBS (UBS) Up 5.6% Since Last Earnings Report?
UBS (UBS) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.
- Zacks
Goldman to Pay $20 Million to Settle Bond Rigging Lawsuit
Goldman Sachs' (GS) involvement in legal issues keeps costs elevated.
- Zacks
UBS Group (UBS) Fined by MAS Over Bond Price Malpractice
The MAS fines UBS Group (UBS) for deceiving clients over prices of bonds and other structured products.
- Business Wire
UBS Announces Proposal to Redeem 13 ETRACS ETNs in 2020
UBS AG announced today that it expects to exercise its contractual call right to redeem in full 13 ETRACS Series A exchange traded notes, set forth in the following table, within a few months following the final expiration of UBS AG’s proposed exchange offers, which were announced earlier today. The commencement date and duration of UBS AG’s proposed exchange offers have not yet been determined, but UBS AG expects that the exchange offers will remain open for approximately four months following their commencement.
- Business Wire
UBS Files Registration Statement for Eight ETRACS ETN Exchange Offers
UBS AG announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form F-4 to register proposed exchange offers (“Exchange Offers”) for eight ETRACS Series A ETNs (collectively, the “Series A ETNs”) for corresponding ETRACS Series B ETNs (collectively, the “Series B ETNs”), as set forth in Table-1 below. Upon commencement of the Exchange Offers, UBS AG intends to offer holders of the Series A ETNs the ability to voluntarily exchange their Series A ETNs on a one-for-one basis for the corresponding Series B ETNs, which are intended to be economically identical. Each of the Series A and Series B ETNs subject to the Exchange Offers are currently listed on NYSE Arca.
- Zacks
Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG) Records Disappointing Earnings in 1H
Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG) reports disappointing earnings for first-half fiscal 2019 (Sep 30, 2019), mainly negatively impacted by lower net gains on equity securities and higher expenses.
- Reuters
Singapore fines UBS $8 million over deceptive bond trades
Singapore said on Thursday it had fined UBS S$11.2 million (£6.44 million) after investigations showed the Swiss bank deceived wealthy clients over prices for bonds and structured products. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said UBS had reported certain malpractices by client advisors in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2016. "The conduct of UBS through its representatives is unacceptable and has no place in the financial services industry where trust and integrity are paramount," said Ong Chong Tee, deputy managing director, financial supervision at MAS.
- Zacks
UBS Group Agrees to Pay $51 Million for Overcharging Clients
UBS Group (UBS) will be paying $51 million to Hong Kong regulators to settle legal issues.
- Reuters
UBS fined $51 million by Hong Kong regulator for overcharging clients
Swiss bank UBS was fined HK$400 million (40 million pound) by Hong Kong's securities regulator for overcharging up to 5,000 clients for nearly a decade, the watchdog said on Monday. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said in a statement that an investigation found UBS had overcharged clients on 'post-trade spread increases' and charges in excess of standard disclosures and rates between 2008 and 2017. The fine is the equal to the largest ever levied on a bank in Hong Kong.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 2-UBS fined $51 mln by Hong Kong regulator for overcharging clients
Swiss bank UBS was fined HK$400 million ($51.09 million) by Hong Kong's securities regulator for overcharging up to 5,000 clients for nearly a decade, the watchdog said on Monday. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said in a statement that an investigation found UBS had overcharged clients on 'post-trade spread increases' and charges in excess of standard disclosures and rates between 2008 and 2017. The fine is the equal to the largest ever levied on a bank in Hong Kong.
- Reuters
UBS wealth management co-head Khan unveils plans to grow business: paper
UBS executive board member Iqbal Khan wants to expand credit to rich clients as a way to grow the Swiss bank's wealth management business, it was reported on Sunday. Khan, the former Credit Suisse star manager who is now co-head of wealth management at UBS, said in a memo to staff he wanted to see "quick wins while working on long-term strategic solutions," Sonntagzeitung wrote on Sunday. "Financing is definitely an area where we could do more," Khan said in the memo, according to the newspaper.
- Reuters
UBS wealth management co-head Khan unveils plans to grow business - paper
UBS executive board member Iqbal Khan wants to expand credit to rich clients as a way to grow the Swiss bank's wealth management business, it was reported on Sunday. Khan, the former Credit Suisse star manager who is now co-head of wealth management at UBS, said in a memo to staff he wanted to see "quick wins while working on long-term strategic solutions," Sonntagzeitung wrote on Sunday. "Financing is definitely an area where we could do more," Khan said in the memo, according to the newspaper.
