Asian operations drive UBS investment banking growth
Swiss firm hopes to replicate success in region by targeting clients that demand both money management and business advisory services
Andrea Orcel wants to build the world's best investment bank at UBS. The firm's Asian operation might just be the place where he has a model for how he does it.
Orcel is the president of UBS' investment bank, the unit at the heart of the Swiss banking group's global financial crisis problems and the one that analysts had largely written off as being ripe for closure or divestment as part of the "Accelerate" restructuring plan launched by the group to get its house in order in late 2012.
Fast-forward nine quarters to the publication of first-quarter figures last week and Orcel's business was revealed to have delivered about a third of UBS' profit before tax of 1.98 billion Swiss francs (HK$16.5 billion) - that was roughly on par with the group's jewel-in-the-crown wealth management operation.
"This quarter saw a very strong contribution from Asia-Pacific," Orcel told the after the results were published.
"If we take our model, relative to the competition, we are underweight the US and overweight Asia. Usually we suffer for that, given the strength of the US economy and the fees in the US economy. This quarter showed a high level of dynamism in Asia and China and that has been captured in our numbers."
Figures show the investment bank's contribution from Asia-Pacific was equal second-strongest among the six operational lines under which UBS reports financial results, posting an annualised return on attributed equity of 46 per cent.
