ZURICH, Jan 14 (Reuters) – UBS (UBSG.S) has no real interest in shopping for fellow Swiss lender Credit score Suisse (CSGN.S), the financial institution’s Chairman Colm Kelleher stated in a interview printed on Saturday.
The previous Morgan Stanley (MS.N) president stated he was centered on natural progress slightly than acquisitions and increasing its enterprise in the USA as he dominated out any transfer to purchase his financial institution’s embattled cross-town rival.
“We’ve no need to purchase Credit score Suisse,” Kelleher advised the Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
“There are all the time eventualities, however none which are convincing,” he stated when requested if there have been any conditions the place a UBS takeover of Credit score Suisse made sense.
The previous chairmen of Credit score Suisse and UBS supported a merger between the 2 banks, and held talks within the first half of 2020, Swiss media reported two years in the past.
The discussions finally lapsed, the media reviews stated, and each Urs Rohner and Axel Weber have since left their roles at Credit score Suisse and UBS respectively.
Each banks declined to touch upon the merger story on the time. Kelleher succeeded Weber in April final yr.
“Our strategic message is: no surprises; natural progress; decide UBS by the numbers, by the U.S. enterprise, by profitability,” he advised the newspaper. “In my expertise such a message may be very effectively acquired by institutional shareholders.”
Kelleher stated UBS had not benefited a lot from the troubles at Credit score Suisse, which has seen sharp outflows as rich shoppers turned their again on the financial institution after a collection of heavy losses and scandals.
“We’ve checked what has flowed to us,” Kelleher stated. “We suspect the most important a part of the outflows went to worldwide banks.”
Reporting by John Revill, enhancing by Deepa Babington
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