Another City bank looks set to reward its staff with bumper bonuses after Swiss giant UBS announced a tripling of its quarterly profits, following a series of disposals.
UBS’ net profit for the quarter was SwFr6.34 billion (£2.78bn), including SwFr3.74 billion related to the sale of three private banks and the GAM hedge fund business to Julius Baer. Overall, this was up by nearly SwFr5 billion on the same quarter in 2004.
UBS’ fourth-quarter net income from continuing operations before goodwill hit a record high of SwFr2.60 billion (£1.14bn), comfortably ahead of analyst expectations and up 32 per cent, boosted by the surge in investment and merger activity.
In its United States wealth management arm, pretax continuing operations profit rose 98 per cent to SwFr83 million.
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In the global asset management business, pretax profit from continuing operations climbed 88 per cent to SwFr305 million as fees rose
On the investment banking side, chief executive Peter Wuffli said M&A activity helped boost pretax profit in that area by 8 per cent. “We have reaped the benefits from investment banking,” said M Wuffli. “We are particularly pleased with our M&A performance in a business where we were literally nobody four or five years ago.”
UBS employs 8,500 in London, and has a global staff of 68,000.
UBS is to pay its shareholders a dividend of £1.66 per share, and is proposing a two-for-one share split later this year.