UBS deploys funds chief to run Saudi office
UBS has drafted in the chairman and chief executive of its global asset management business to head its newly-set up operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the Swiss wealth manager becomes the latest bank to target the oil-rich region.
UBS has announced that John Fraser, chairman and chief executive of UBS Global Asset Management and a group executive board member, will become chairman of UBS Saudi Arabia, following the decision by the Capital Markets Authority in the Kingdom to grant conditional authorisation to set up operations in the country.
Fraser, who will be based in London, will be supported by Mohammed Al Dhoheyan, who has left his current position as chief executive of the Development and Management House for Investments to become vice-chairman.
The office will be led by Mohamed Sammakia, currently a managing director in UBS's fixed income division and president of the Middle East region based in London, who will become chief executive. Both Al Dhoheyan and Sammakia will be based in Riyadh.
UBS hopes to have the office open by the end of the year, pending final approval by the CMA, to focus on providing wealth management, asset management and investment banking services.
A spokesman for UBS said that the region was important to the bank and that Fraser would visit the Riyadh office as often as possible. Meanwhile, UBS has also applied for a banking license in the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority, announcing that it will more than double its regional investment banking division by the end of 2008. The expansion in the region comes as UBS plans to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide, following writedowns of $38bn (€24.2bn) in sub-prime losses in the past three quarters.
UBS joins a expanding list of banks who have sought to develop operations in Saudi Arabia. JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch have applied for banking licences to operate alone, while Calyon, Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley operate through joint ventures in the country.
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