UBS Group AG
Acquisitions
3
Major Deals Covered
$14.1B
Disclosed Deal Value
UBS's largest disclosed acquisition here is PaineWebber for $10.8B in 2000. This page covers 3 major deals from 1995 to 2023, each with its price where disclosed and the reason behind it.
| Company | Year | Price | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| PaineWebber | 2000 | $10.8B | Build a large US wealth management business. |
| Credit Suisse | 2023 | $3.3B | Government-brokered rescue of its failing Swiss rival, agreed in March 2023 for about $3.6 billion (CHF 3 billion) in shares. |
| S. G. Warburg | 1995 | Undisclosed | Swiss Bank Corporation, one of the two banks that formed UBS, bought the London merchant bank S. G. Warburg in 1995. |
2023
$3.3B
Government-brokered rescue of its failing Swiss rival, agreed in March 2023 for about $3.6 billion (CHF 3 billion) in shares.
Added large wealth, Swiss banking and asset management businesses; risky positions moved into a Non-core and Legacy unit.
UBS booked a large negative goodwill gain in 2023 and has spent 2024-2026 migrating clients, cutting costs and running down legacy assets.
2000
$10.8B
Build a large US wealth management business.
Added thousands of US financial advisors, the core of today's UBS Americas wealth unit.
The US became UBS's largest wealth region by invested assets.
1995
Swiss Bank Corporation, one of the two banks that formed UBS, bought the London merchant bank S. G. Warburg in 1995.
The purchase gave it a leading European investment-banking franchise, later combined with Dillon Read as Warburg Dillon Read.
Completed in 1995. The business became the core of the UBS investment bank after the 1998 merger.
UBS is focused on integrating Credit Suisse, reducing duplicate costs, expanding global wealth management relationships, using technology to improve advisor productivity, growing asset management mandates, and keeping the investment bank focused on capital-light advisory and markets strengths.
UBS earns most of its money from wealth management: recurring fees charged on client assets, transaction commissions, and net interest income on deposits and Lombard loans to wealthy clients. Global Wealth Management is the largest division, serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients across the Americas, Switzerland, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Personal & Corporate Banking makes it the leading universal bank in Switzerland, earning interest and fees from households and companies. Asset Management collects management fees on institutional and fund mandates. The Investment Bank earns advisory, capital markets and trading revenue, kept deliberately smaller than Wall Street peers. Non-core and Legacy runs down inherited Credit Suisse positions.
The government-brokered emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse on March 19, 2023, for CHF 3.0 billion ($3.25 billion USD), unifying Switzerland's two historic banking titans into a singular global wealth giant.
UBS acquired US brokerage firm PaineWebber for $10.8 billion in 2000, establishing an immediate nationwide presence across the United States with over 8,000 financial advisors.
Swiss Bank Corporation acquired legendary British merchant bank S.G. Warburg for £860 million in 1995 to form SBC Warburg, creating an international investment banking and equities trading powerhouse.
Swiss Bank Corporation acquired prestigious Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. for $600 million in 1997, merging it into Warburg Dillon Read prior to the 1998 UBS merger.
In September 2022, UBS and robo-advisor Wealthfront mutually agreed to terminate their planned $1.4 billion acquisition, allowing UBS to save capital and focus on serving its core high-net-worth human advisor model.
UBS completely abandoned Credit Suisse's plan to spin out its investment bank under Michael Klein as CSFB, terminating deal contracts and folding all viable trading and advisory operations into UBS Investment Bank.
UBS is executing a phased technical migration through 2025–2026, moving Credit Suisse clients onto UBS's unified IT platform while decommissioning Credit Suisse's legacy mainframes.
UBS acquired Brazil's Banco Pactual for $2.6 billion in 2006, expanding into Latin America before selling it back to its original partners during the 2009 financial crisis, later re-entering Brazil through a joint venture with Banco do Brasil.
UBS applies strict financial criteria: potential targets must add high-quality client assets, fit into existing booking hubs (US, Asia, Switzerland), offer clear technology cost synergies, and be accretive to Return on Tangible Equity.
UBS fully absorbed Credit Suisse's Swiss domestic bank in 2024, consolidating overlapping retail branches across Swiss cantons while maintaining dedicated client service teams for Swiss commercial enterprises.
The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) and FINMA reviewed the Credit Suisse merger, concluding that financial stability imperatives superseded antitrust concerns, approving the merger with targeted monitoring conditions.
UBS is expected to remain focused entirely on executing internal integration synergies through 2026, avoiding major acquisitions while returning substantial excess capital to shareholders via share buybacks.
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