In a Bid to Simplify, UBS Sells Majority Stake in Fund Platform to Clearstream
Posted on 01/21/2020
UBS Group AG agreed to sell a 51.2% stake in UBS Fondcenter AG to Deutsche Börse Group’s post-trade services provider Clearstream. UBS will retain a minority equity position at 48.8%, and entered into an agreement in which UBS can sell its remaining shareholding to Clearstream at a later time. Furthermore, UBS and Clearstream will enter into long-term commercial cooperation arrangements for the provision of services to UBS’s Global Wealth Management and Asset Management business divisions and the Corporate and Institutional Clients unit of Personal & Corporate Banking. UBS Fondcenter employees will move over to Clearstream.
Post-transaction, Fondcenter will be combined with Clearstream’s Fund Desk business. The newly combined unit will just be called Fondcenter and is slated to have approximately 340 distribution partners with more than 450 fund providers. UBS is expecting to recognize a post-tax gain of approximately US$ 600 million and a CET1 capital increase of approximately US$ 400 million.
Upon closing, UBS expects to recognize a post-tax gain of approximately $600 million and a CET1 capital increase of approximately $400 million. UBS will deconsolidate Fondcenter and account for its minority interest as an investment in an associate.
Context
UBS Fondcenter was under the UBS Asset Management division in Zurich. UBS Fondcenter has offices in Frankfurt and Hong Kong.
In 2019, Credit Suisse combined its fund platform InvestLab with another fund platform called Allfunds.
