Great China News for UBS (UBS)
I invested in UBS for the first time at the beginning of this year, and aside from a dividend the price today is virtually identical to my purchase price of $101.
But at least one of the reasons why I purchased UBS instead of one of their large financial brethren like Bank of America or Citigroup took a step forward today.
UBS has announced that they're now in the lead among the western banks working to establish brokerages in China by investing directly in local brokerage houses. They're reportedly buying at 20% stake in Beijing Securities, and a quote from the Wall Street Journal article of this afternoon reinforces the importance of this move going forward:
"A UBS spokesman in Zurich said: 'Beijing Securities is the most important thing we have in China. It will give us access to the onshore market in China.'"
This is not final yet, and there are certainly more bureacratic mazes to negotiate, but UBS is certainly in the vanguard. UBS is a great investment for those who believe serving the wealthy around the world is likely to be a growth industry, and I especially like their wide footprint with great initiatives in Asia and elsewhere. Unlike Citigroup and Bank of America, both of whom have yields that are a bit stronger than UBS (4% versus 3%, roughly), UBS is not so closely associated with the US market that it gets a cold when Bernanke sneezes.
This is generally a quiet investment for me -- I may pick up some more before too long, but the shares seem pretty fairly valued and I'm happy to use them here to represent global financial services in my portfolio for the next several years, with some possible nice upside from their gradual reorganization after a serious global spending spree and their growing presence in Asian financial markets.
But at least one of the reasons why I purchased UBS instead of one of their large financial brethren like Bank of America or Citigroup took a step forward today.
UBS has announced that they're now in the lead among the western banks working to establish brokerages in China by investing directly in local brokerage houses. They're reportedly buying at 20% stake in Beijing Securities, and a quote from the Wall Street Journal article of this afternoon reinforces the importance of this move going forward:
"A UBS spokesman in Zurich said: 'Beijing Securities is the most important thing we have in China. It will give us access to the onshore market in China.'"
This is not final yet, and there are certainly more bureacratic mazes to negotiate, but UBS is certainly in the vanguard. UBS is a great investment for those who believe serving the wealthy around the world is likely to be a growth industry, and I especially like their wide footprint with great initiatives in Asia and elsewhere. Unlike Citigroup and Bank of America, both of whom have yields that are a bit stronger than UBS (4% versus 3%, roughly), UBS is not so closely associated with the US market that it gets a cold when Bernanke sneezes.
This is generally a quiet investment for me -- I may pick up some more before too long, but the shares seem pretty fairly valued and I'm happy to use them here to represent global financial services in my portfolio for the next several years, with some possible nice upside from their gradual reorganization after a serious global spending spree and their growing presence in Asian financial markets.
Labels: UBS
This article posted by One Guy @ 6/20/2006 04:30:00 PM 0 comments
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