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UBS Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel wants to sell Paine Webber but not now

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:September 29, 2009

UBS (UBSN.VX) chief executive Oswald Gruebel said Paine Webber, the bank’s U.S. wealth management unit, is “non-core” but the bank will not sell at present, the Financial Times quoted him as saying.”We’ve had a lot of inquiries from potential buyers, but it wouldn’t make sense to sell at current valuations,” Gruebel said, according to the report on Tuesday.

Gruebel also told the newspaper the bank wanted to cut ties with the Swiss government by buying its way out of a bad bank deal and aimed to return to health within a year.

Gruebel also told the FT the bank wanted to cut ties with the Swiss government by buying its way out of a “bad bank” deal and aimed to return to health within a year.

The bank previously said it had no plans to buy back toxic assets but could consider such a course of action at some point in future.

UBS (UBS) bought U.S. brokerage Paine Webber in 2000 for about $10 billion and merged it into UBS Americas, its U.S. wealth management subsidiary, signaling its intention to aggressively expand in the U.S. wealth management segment.

UBS (UBSN.VX) Americas had over $600 billion in assets at the end of 2008, according to the UBS annual report.

However the dual challenges of the financial crisis and a damaging tax fraud probe by the U.S. government, which caused considerable brand damage to UBS, have forced the bank to pare back its U.S. wealth management business, Reuters reported.

Paine Webber and Company was an American stock brokerage and asset management firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS AG in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber.

Operating with two employees, they leased premises at 48 Congress Street and in May 1881. The company was renamed Paine, Webber & Co. when Charles Hamilton Paine became a partner. Members of the Boston Stock Exchange, in 1890 the company acquired a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Wallace G. Webber retired after the business weathered a major financial crisis that hit the market in 1893.

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