Switzerland's largest bank UBS faced a rocky shareholder meeting yesterday as plans to plug billions of dollars in subprime losses with funds from foreign investors were likely to meet fierce criticism.
UBS' reputation as a key player in Swiss and international banking has taken a battering in recent weeks, with chairman Marcel Ospel coming in for special opprobrium.
Swiss President Pascal Couchepin stoked the flames further on Tuesday, denouncing the bank chairman's "Pharoah-like" salary of 26.6 million Swiss francs (US$24.5 million) in 2006.
"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," Couchepin told Swiss weekly magazine Bilan.
"It's not a state matter, but I consider it incredible," the president said.
The meeting "will be a long and difficult one for the management," Credit Suisse banking analyst Christine Schmid said.
Around 5,000 shareholders are expected to attend in the Swiss city of Basel.
UBS has been under increasing fire after posting its first ever full-year loss last year due to US$18 billion in losses in the US housing market.
The bank revealed a net loss of SF4.4 billion last year, compared with a profit of SF12.3 billion in 2006.
In a bid to restore its balance sheet, UBS in December proposed a capital hike of SF19.4 billion funded chiefly by Singapore's state investment arm (GIC) and an unnamed Middle East investor.
GIC said it would inject SF11 billion into UBS, giving it a stake of about 9 percent and making it the largest single shareholder, while the Middle Eastern investor was to put up SF2 billion.
But the proposal has sparked shareholder ire amid fears the deal could put existing investors at a disadvantage.
Pressure is also growing on Ospel, with rumors rife in the Swiss press that UBS is putting out feelers for a possible replacement.
Deutsche Bank head Josef Ackermann, former ABB boss Fred Kindle and Royal Dutch Shell chief financial officer Peter Voser have all been among the names mentioned.
UBS is scheduled to reelect or pick a new chairman during its annual general meeting on April 23.
Couchepin said that his fate "is for the shareholders to decide."
The Ethos Foundation of small shareholders questioned the need for the bank's proposed capital hike, saying the Swiss bank was far from being under-subscribed at present.
"It would not be the end of the world" if shareholders reject the proposal, a spokesperson for the foundation said.
Another shareholder, the Profond foundation, proposed its own capital hike open to existing shareholders that could then be extended to outside investors.
Small shareholders in another association -- Actares -- warned that failure to agree on one or other of the proposals would have "catastrophic" consequences for the bank.
A two-thirds majority was needed to pass the Swiss bank's own proposal, while the Profond hike required an absolute majority to be approved.
Funds research agency Lipper said UBS had seen an 8.4 percent decline in its assets under management in the past six months, while rival Credit Suisse had seen a 1.9 percent fall.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has lodged a protest with Pretoria after the name of the Taipei Liaison Office in South Africa was changed to the “Taipei Commercial Office” on the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (DIRCO) Web site. In October last year, the South African government asked Taiwan to relocate the Taipei Liaison Office, the nation’s de facto embassy, out of Pretoria. It later agreed to continue negotiating through official channels, but in January asked that the office be relocated by the end of this month. As of the middle of last month, DIRCO’s Web
RSS