S'pore against UBS split

S'pore against UBS split: report
Wed, Jan 23, 2008
Reuters




ZURICH - THE head of Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC), which has agreed to make a massive capital injection in UBS , is against the idea of the Swiss bank spinning off its investment bank unit, a Swiss media report said.

Mr Ng Kok Song, who heads the GIC, told Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft in an interview that although the investment bank required restructuring, a spin-off of the entire business would be a mistake.

'Losing the entire investment bank would mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater,' he told the business newspaper.

'We prefer a restructuring of the investment bank over a sale.' UBS's investment bank business is reeling after the bank took $14.5 billion (S$20.8 billion) of writedowns on exposures to the stricken US subprime mortgage market.

Mr Ng Kok Song confirmed that GIC, which together with an unidentified Middle East investor has agreed to inject 13 billion Swiss francs into UBS, subject to approval by the Swiss bank's shareholders, would not seek a place on the UBS board.

'We are not a strategic investor, nor do we pursue political aims. Therefore we do not seek a place on the board and we do not want to exercise direct influence on the management,' he told the newspaper. -- REUTERS