UBS makes first profit since Credit Suisse rescue

London (CNN) — UBS has reported its first quarterly profit since buying ailing rival Credit Suisse, marking a sharp turnaround from six months of losses that immediately followed the closure of the rescue deal.

Shares in the Swiss lender surged 10% in Zurich Tuesday after it posted net profit of $1.8 billion for the first three months of 2024 — a 71% increase from a year ago. Combined losses for the June-to-December 2023 period totaled almost $1.1 billion.

CEO Sergio Ermotti said the latest performance was “a testament” to the strength of the bank and its “ability to deliver significant progress” on its integration plans.

Johann Scholtz, an analyst at Morningstar, noted that the results were “much stronger than expected.”

“The market was initially concerned that the Credit Suisse merger would lead to revenue attrition, which would have left cost reduction as the only lever to drive earnings growth,” he said in a note.

In fact, revenue surged 45% from a year ago to $12.7 billion and UBS attracted net new money of $27 billion into its global wealth management business, the bank’s biggest division, in the first quarter. It also realized cost savings of $1 billion, adding to cost cuts of some $4 billion last year.

UBS pledged in February to slash costs by $13 billion by the end of 2026, including by cutting thousands of jobs, as it works to make sure the mammoth deal pays off.

The bank bought its crosstown rival in March last year in a government-orchestrated rescue aimed at preventing a global financial crisis. The deal was completed in June, but the process of integration is expected to take at least another two years.

Ermotti, who was brought back for a second stint as CEO to oversee the emergency takeover, has previously said that this year will be “pivotal” to the combination, which involves merging operations across more than 50 countries.

On Tuesday, Ermotti said UBS was “on track” to achieve “significant integration milestones” this year, including the merger of the two banks’ operations in Switzerland in the third quarter.

Regulatory risk

Shares in UBS have risen more than 54% over the past year but recently suffered a selloff after Switzerland’s finance ministry proposed significant increases to the amount of cash and other liquid assets the bank must hold to absorb potential losses.

Swiss finance minister Karin Keller-Suter later said the additional capital requirements could amount to as much as 25 billion Swiss francs ($27.5 billion).

UBS has raised serious concerns about the proposals and on Tuesday Ermotti reiterated the bank’s view that it wasn’t lack of capital that left Credit Suisse needing to be rescued.

“While some modifications to the regulatory regime may be necessary… the discussion around capital should be based on facts that include a full and transparent account of what led to the idiosyncratic failures of Credit Suisse,” he told analysts on a call.

He said UBS was already adding almost $20 billion to its capital buffers as a result of the takeover of Credit Suisse, in part because of the bank’s increased market share and balance sheet size.

“We will be constructively contributing our views to the relevant authorities… and I remain hopeful for a proportionate outcome,” he added.

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