UBS Reports Record-Breaking $29 Billion Profit

When UBS agreed to purchase its archrival Credit Suisse for a bit of over $3 billion this spring on the Swiss authorities’s behest, analysts and buyers mentioned that worth represented a steep low cost. UBS’s newest monetary outcomes replicate simply how a lot of a steal it was.

On Thursday, the financial institution reported a $29 billion revenue in its second quarter — sure, billion with a “b” — the greatest quarterly revenue in banking historical past.

But that paper achieve belies the challenges that UBS faces because it strikes to finish the biggest takeover of a financial institution because the 2008 monetary disaster. That course of will embody absorbing a few of its onetime competitor’s home footprint and shuttering a big portion of its funding banking operations.

UBS’s big revenue arises from “badwill,” an accounting phenomenon the place an organization buys an asset for lower than it’s price, resulting in a noncash achieve that basically acknowledges the precise worth of the asset. (It’s often known as “negative goodwill.”)

UBS reported that its underlying revenue for the quarter was simply $1.1 billion.

A wave of financial institution rescue offers this yr has led to pumped-up income for acquirers. Second-quarter revenue at JPMorgan Chase jumped 67 % largely due to its takeover of First Republic, whereas First Citizens loved a 3,500 % achieve in revenue for the primary three months of the yr — to $9.5 billion, from $243 million — after shopping for Silicon Valley Bank at a steep low cost.

But UBS has extra work to do earlier than it completes its Credit Suisse acquisition, which is anticipated by 2026. Among its greatest duties is consolidating its former rival’s home financial institution with its personal, regardless of considerations that the transfer will undercut competitors in Swiss retail banking.

Uniting the 2 will result in some 3,000 job losses within the nation, validating fears amongst politicians and voters. But on Thursday, UBS defended its determination: “Our analysis clearly shows that full integration is the best outcome for UBS, our stakeholders and the Swiss economy.”

Credit Suisse’s personal outcomes — together with a pretax lack of 4.3 billion Swiss Francs ($4.9 billion) within the quarter, tied to buyer withdrawals and struggles in funding banking — counsel that UBS nonetheless has massive hurdles to beat in absorbing the enterprise.

UBS has additionally signaled that it’s going to shut a good portion of Credit Suisse’s funding banking and buying and selling operations, which helped contribute to the troubles that led to the collapse of the 167-year-old establishment.

For now, UBS shareholders seem completely satisfied, particularly with the badwill achieve displaying simply how a lot the financial institution benefited from rescuing its rival. (UBS manages about $5 trillion in shopper belongings following the deal.) Shares within the financial institution closed up greater than 6 % on Thursday, and now commerce at their highest degree because the summer time of 2008.