UBS Completes Credit Suisse Takeover To Become Wealth Management Behemoth

• UBS completed its emergency takeover of embattled local rival Credit Suisse on Monday, forging a Swiss banking and wealth management giant with a $1.6 trillion balance sheet.
• Marking the closing of the biggest banking deal since the 2008 financial crisis, UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti and Chairman Colm Kelleher said despite challenges there were "many opportunities" for clients, staff, shareholders and Switzerland.
• The combined group will oversee $5 trillion of assets, giving UBS a leading position in key markets it would otherwise have needed years to grow in size and reach. The merger also ends Credit Suisse's 167 years of independence.
• Having peaked at more than 82 Swiss francs in 2007, the price of Credit Suisse shares has been eroded by scandals and losses in recent years and closed at 0.82 francs on Monday.
• UBS agreed on March 19 to buy Credit Suisse for a knockdown price of 3 billion Swiss francs and up to five billion francs in assumed losses in a rescue orchestrated by Swiss authorities with Switzerland's second-largest bank on the edge of collapse.
• On Friday, UBS finalised an agreement on the conditions of a 9 billion Swiss franc public backstop for losses from winding down parts of Credit Suisse's business. UBS sealed the takeover in less than three months, a tight timetable given its scale and complexity, in a race to provide greater certainty for both clients and employees. The deal, however, exposed two myths - namely, that Switzerland is a steady, predictable investment destination and that banks' problems would no longer hit taxpayers.

(Source: Reuters)