Sponsored By: Shareholders Welcome New UBS

The 20% rally in UBS?s share price in the month to late-November, after the announcement at the end of October of a severe reduction in capital allocated to the fixed-income business, presents a challenge to other large banks. UBS has transformed its story to investors.

The 20% rally in UBS?s share price in the month to late-November, after the announcement at the end of October of a severe reduction in capital allocated to the fixed-income business, presents a challenge to other large banks.

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UBS has transformed its story to investors. This group was dominated by its large, troubled investment bank, with a strong wealth management business attached, but now it will look more like a large global wealth manager and asset manager, with a trimmed down investment bank ? two-thirds smaller than it was ? attached.

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Analysts love the idea of the new UBS. Jeremy Sigee and Kiri Vijayarajah, European banks analysts at Barclays, note: "It is a big change and it prompts a big change in our view too, from underweight to overweight. UBS?s new business model should be able to generate near-20% returns on tangible equity and justify a price/book multiple up to 1.5 to two times."

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Sergio Ermotti, chief executive of UBS Sergio Ermotti, chief executive of UBS Sergio Ermotti, chief executive of UBS, upon announcing the reorganization, was moved to boast: "The business model we are creating will be unique in the banking industry." He claimed that the new investment bank, which will now be dominated by the equities and advisory businesses, is "the only capital-lite, Basle III-compliant investment bank that exists today, [and] is the only investment bank in its league prepared for the new world, and will deliver returns well in excess of its cost of capital".

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What the market most likes is that the investment bank will be small. It will have just SFr7 billion ($7.5 billion) of attributed equity in 2015, supporting SFr70 billion of Basle III risk-weighted assets, down from SFr22 billion of equity in the third quarter of 2012, supporting SFr162 billion of risk-weighted assets. From accounting for 46% of UBS Group?s attributed equity today, the investment bank will account for just 16% in three years.

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However, Ermotti warns rivals that UBS intends forcefully to compete for increased market share in its core businesses, saying it has SFr1.5 billion to invest during the next two years across UBS, including the investment bank, and that from 2015 it will not only deliver that return on equity of 15% but also continue to grow its business organically, while maintaining a 50% pay-out ratio to shareholders.

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Investors want to hear exactly this kind of talk, and to see large complex banks shrink back and concentrate more on a few core strengths. However, does all this chest-beating sound a bit too good to be true?

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The businesses that will now dominate the investment banking division, equities and advisory, might well consume less capital than the FICC businesses UBS is exiting, but equities has suffered from persistently low customer volumes amid continuing concerns about the weak global economy. Similarly, access to cheap funding has not prompted companies to grow through acquisition, given the macro uncertainties. And even during equity market rallies, that business and M&A advisory exhibit high cost/income ratios. The good news is that marginal players are exiting the equity business, especially in Europe, where UBS is particularly strong. Cr?dit Agricole, for example, is selling its equity brokerage Cheuvreux to Kepler. UniCredit has also outsourced it equity brokerage to Kepler, and RBS has quit equities. If more large universal banks give up on equities, UBS could pick up some share.

Read the full story: http://www.euromoney.com/Article/3123544/Investment-banking-Shareholders-welcome-new-UBS.html

The business model we are creating will be unique in the banking industry.

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