Strategy

Singapore Wealth Fund Supports UBS Restructuring Over Sale

Christopher Owen 24 January 2008

Singapore Wealth Fund Supports UBS Restructuring Over Sale

The managing director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation has said he would prefer a restructuring of UBS investment banking unit over a sale of the business.

Ng Kok Song, managing director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, said he would prefer a restructuring of UBS investment banking unit over a sale of the business. Mr Ng, whose sovereign wealth fund recently agreed to buy a 9 per cent stake in the Swiss bank, told Swiss bi-weekly Finanz und Wirtschaft: “We would prefer a restructuring of the investment bank over a sale.” UBS management, he said, had "good reasons" to decide on a one-bank model because the international investment bank, wealth management and Swiss retail banking businesses complement one another and create synergies. He also repeated that GIC has no plans to seek control of UBS. In December, UBS said it had plans to issue SFr13 billion ($11.9 billion) of new capital, of which SFr11 billion was placed with GIC and SFr2 billion with a strategic investor in the Middle East.

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