Marcel waves goodbye

"The boss departs after more big subprime-related writedowns at UBSNOT long ago, when an illustrious bank was in trouble, it could announce, with some fanfare, the support of sovereign-wealth investors from the Gulf states or the Far East. In December, when UBS secured SFr13 billion ($11.5 billion) in such funds from Singapore and the Middle East, some of its long-standing investors grumbled that they, too, should have been given the opportunity to help recapitalise the bank on the same generous terms.Be careful what you wish for. On Tuesday April 1st UBS announced ? and it was no prank ? that it was writing down a further $19 billion on its investments in American subprime and other mortgages, as part of an unexpected SFr12 billion projected loss in the first quarter. The Swiss bank also said it would call on its shareholders to supply SFr15 billion in additional funds to shore up its depleted reserves of capital. That means its sovereign-wealth backers face severe dilution, in addition to the potential losses that they have already suffered on their holdings since December. In penance, Marcel Ospel, architect of the merger that created UBS in 1998, said he would step down as chairman, to be replaced by Peter Kurer, the bank?s general counsel. ..." (2008-4-1)

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