(Basel) UBS executives told their shareholders on Wednesday that the hastily arranged takeover of Credit Suisse was a “Herculean task” fraught with risk, but it was the right thing to do.
The president of the first bank of Switzerland, Colm Kelleher, said he “understands” that all shareholders are “not happy”.
But “I am convinced that we have made the right choice”, he assured at the annual general meeting in Basel.
On March 19, under intense pressure from the Swiss authorities, the number one in the Swiss banking sector agreed to buy its rival for the meager sum of 3 billion Swiss francs, negotiating however solid financial guarantees from the central bank and the government.
UBS shareholders, like those of Credit Suisse – meeting the day before in Zurich – did not have a say. The priority of the Swiss authorities was to prevent a collapse of Credit Suisse which would have shaken the Swiss financial center and potentially triggered a serious international financial crisis.
The merger of these two banks already considered too big to fail before their merger will be “a herculean task”, acknowledged Lukas Gähwiler, vice president of UBS.
The director of Finma, the policeman of the financial markets in Switzerland, used the same term on Wednesday in Bern. “It’s a Herculean task that will take several years,” said Urban Angehrn, who is calling for more power, especially in terms of sanctions, to be able to regulate the market in the face of this emerging giant.
UBS will metamorphose into a banking colossus at the head of 5000 billion in invested assets once this merger is sealed.
“This new giant bank worries us,” said Vincent Kaufmann, director of the Ethos Foundation, which represents pension funds in Switzerland. He underlined the concentration of risks that will result, the reduction of competition in Switzerland and the loss of jobs to come.
Together, the two banks employ 120,000 people worldwide, including 37,000 in Switzerland. Job cuts could represent 20 to 30% of the workforce.
“You buy a bank without doing due diligence,” he added in an interview with AFP, not knowing “what’s in the cupboards.” He recalls the disappointments of the cement manufacturer Holcim during its merger with Lafarge, where the shareholders discovered after the fact what was closed in the cupboards “with what happened in Syria”.
A collective of environmental organizations has placed a bubble in the shape of a huge cloud of CO2 at the entrance to symbolize the excessiveness of the bank, explaining that it is making the trip, “because we do not attend the birth every day of a gozilla,” Guillaume Durin, spokesman for BreakFree Switzerland, told AFP.
But the UBS meeting was held in a much calmer atmosphere than that of Credit Suisse on Tuesday, where shareholders had been shouting their anger for five hours.
“It’s a bad solution,” said Walter Gschwend, a retired shareholder and former UBS employee, who would have preferred a state takeover.
The bank is going to be so big that it “can’t
No more being saved” in the event of a shock, “it will be too big to survive,” he told AFP at the entrance to the general assembly.
The shareholders nevertheless largely renewed their confidence in the president of the bank, re-elected with 89.8% of the votes.
UBS had had its share of turbulent general meetings, especially in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, which required the establishment of a bailout plan by the State.
But this past seemed to be over since the major restructuring carried out by Sergio Ermotti, its boss from 2011 to 2020. Last year, the bank in full financial health generated a net profit of 7.6 billion Swiss francs (approximately the same amount in euros), where Credit Suisse lost 7.3 billion.
Faced with the magnitude of the task awaiting UBS, the board of directors has called back Mr. Ermotti, who is to take over the management for a second time at the end of this general meeting. He will have to carry out major work, in particular to clean up Credit Suisse and the numerous disputes accumulated over the past two years.