Posted on 02/27/2008 10:47:25 PM PST by bruinbirdman
UBS shareholders waved through a SwFr13 billion (£6.14 billion) capital injection at Switzerland's largest bank, despite a stormy extraordinary meeting in which one angry shareholder tried to storm the stage.
GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, will pay the bank SwFr11 billion for a 9 per cent stake, making it UBS's largest shareholder. An unnamed Middle Easter investor will put in a further SwFr2 billion.
UBS needed the immediate cash to recapitalise the business after making its first full-year loss. The bank reported a SwFr4.4 billion net loss last year after taking an $18.4 billion hit from the downturn in the credit markets. In 2006 it made a profit of SwFr12.3 billion.
Marcel Ospel, the bank's embattled chairman, said that he was satisfied with the decision by 87 per cent of shareholders to accept the funding. UBS was now one of the best capitalised banks in the world and was well positioned to cope with any future shocks, he said.
He refused to rule out further writedowns and admitted that UBS faced a difficult year. Despite approving the rescue capital, shareholders have not forgiven Mr Ospel for overseeing the bank's first annual loss.
They were also furious that the new investment from Singapore and the Middle East would dilute their stakes in the bank. More than 6,500 investors attended yesterday's meeting at an arena in Basle.
One investor accused the bank's management of turning UBS into a “casino”. Others were infurated by Mr Ospel's pay, with one telling him: “Your basic salary is far too high. You have achieved nothing.”
One shareholder ran towards the stage but was bundled away by security guards before he could reach the chairman. The meeting was temporarily adjourned while Mr Ospel checked on the fate of the protester.
The chairman has weathered weeks of fierce criticism. There has been speculation that the board has approached other candidates to take his role, with many senior European bankers, including Josef Ackermann, Deutsche Bank's chairman and chief executive, and Bob Diamond, Barclays' president, having been named as possible replacements.
The Swiss President further stoked the anger towards Mr Ospel this week when he described the chairman's salary of SwFr26.6 million as “Pharoah-like”. Pascal Couchepin told Bilan, the Swiss magazine: “I'm outraged that Marcel Ospel has earned Pharaoh-like salaries for four to five years and that when the bank wobbles, he can keep it all.”
UBS has reduced Mr Ospel's proposed term of office from three years to one year, but Hermes, the UK fund manager, used yesterday's meeting to call for the chairman, who will face re-election at the bank's general meeting on April 23, to step down.
Mr Ospel told the meeting that he was aware of the disappointment felt by investors and admitted that the bank had “failed to recognise the signals from the US housing market in time ... there is no doubt that we judged a number of developments wrongly”. Yet he insisted that he would remain in his job, saying: “I believe it is my supreme duty to be there on the front lines, helping the bank tackle and overcome its current troubles.”
A motion for a special audit into the bank's investments in US sub-prime mortgage-related assets was narrowly defeated. UBS said that it was already co-operating with an investigation by Switzerland's banking commission.
Avalanche builds
July 2007 Peter Wuffli, UBS chief executive, quits
October UBS gives warning of writedowns related to mortgages in the United States. Replaces Huw Jenkins, the investment bank chief
December Warning of further writedowns and full-year loss
December Announces that it is to issue new shares to sovereign wealth fund investors
January 2008 More writedowns take tally to $18.6 billion
February Calls for Marcel Ospel to quit
So, when is Middle Easter this year?
That is, indeed, outrageous.
Stockholders never complain when the value of their shares go up, they receive dividends, and they sell for a profit.
yitbos
It’s the world upside down; how long can this last?
Europeans got burned on this CMO toxic waste and will never be as reckless lenders here again. We burned our largest lenders and will sufferer the consequences.
I am surprised a Swiss Bank(didn’t know UBS was Swiss) got into it in the first place! Especially as deep as UBS did.
Foreign cash injection ping.
Swiss banks, some of them at least, are much bolder and wilder than they used to be. UBS is a global bank. The conservative ones the drug dealers and dictators put money operate just in Switzerland and maybe a few European nations
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.