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UBS revamps asset arm
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March 2, 2000: 4:16 a.m. ET
Swiss bank merges U.K., international units; replaces 'market bear'
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Swiss banking giant UBS on Thursday announced its second major restructuring in as many weeks, saying it would shake up its asset management business and replace one of the unit's most senior executives.
The group, Europe's third-largest bank by asset value, will merge its London-based Philips & Drew fund management unit, which has lagged industry rivals in terms of recent investment performance, with U.S.-based Brinson Partners. Tony Dye, the controversial chief investment officer at P&D, will step down, while its former executive chairman, Crispin Collins, becomes vice-chairman of UBS Asset Management.
Speculation that Dye would leave - he is officially retiring -- has circled for weeks as institutional investors have sought reparations for the disastrous performance of pension funds managed by P&D.
Dye, noted for his bearish stance on stock markets over the past few years, had reduced the equity exposure of P&D's managed funds in favor of holding more defensive bonds and cash. That approach left the company that topped the asset management league tables in the first half of the 1990s ranking almost bottom over the past five years.
Adrian Pilz, a banking analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton in London, said he expected the savings generated by the shake-up outweigh the costs, though he warned there could be a short-term impact from combining units with two different investment styles.
"Clients may not like to be reshuffled to new [investment] platforms," Pilz said. "There has been some client attrition when this happened on the private-banking side.
UBS announced a revamp of its private-banking business, the world's largest, on Feb. 18, combining the domestic and international units.
UBS will announce its fourth-quarter and full-year 1999 results on Mar. 9. Its shares opened fractionally higher Thursday at 409.50 Swiss francs. 
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UBS
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