UBS Q2 profit rises 53% on higher wealth management

[ZURICH] UBS Group AG reported second-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates as income from managing funds for the wealthy more than doubled on lower costs.

Net income climbed to 1.21 billion Swiss francs (US$1.26 billion) from 792 million francs a year earlier, Switzerland's largest bank said Monday in a statement. That exceeded the 915 million-franc average of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The bank will establish a group service company subsidiary in the third quarter, UBS said.

"I am pleased with the quarter," Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti said in the statement. " We maintained our momentum despite ongoing market challenges." UBS, the world's biggest manager of money for the wealthy, has focused on expanding that division while shrinking its investment bank. It runs the largest private bank in Asia, where firms are competing fiercely to oversee the region's growing wealth.

UBS profit in last year's quarter was hurt by 254 million francs in provisions for litigation, including part of a fine of about 300 million euros (US$330 million) for helping Germans evade taxes.

The bank released earnings a day earlier than planned "in order to be transparent and counter certain incorrect and misleading information that has become public," the bank said.

"As in previous years, seasonal impacts are likely to affect revenues and profits in the third quarter," the company said Monday.

BLOOMBERG