UBS posts 1.03b Swiss franc net profit for Q2, ahead of poll estimate

[ZURICH] Switzerland's biggest bank UBS on Friday posted a 14.5 per cent year-on-year drop in second-quarter net profit on the back of lower earnings at its wealth management and investment banking businesses.

The world's largest wealth manager said net profit for the three months to the end of June was 1.034 billion Swiss francs (S$1.48 billion), down from 1.2 billion francs a year ago. This was still ahead of the average estimate of 680 million francs in a Reuters poll of five analysts.

"Sustained market volatility, underlying macroeconomic uncertainty and heightened geopolitical tensions, exacerbated by the impact of the UK referendum vote to end EU membership, continued to contribute to client risk aversion and generally low transaction volumes," the bank said in a statement. "These conditions are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future."

REUTERS