| Reuters December 30, 2007 ZURICH THE Singapore government, which recently bought a 9 percent stake in UBS, does not aim for operational control over the Swiss bank, a Swiss newspaper reported on Sunday, Dec 30. "UBS should not expect any special handling from us," Lim Siong Guan, group managing director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, told the SonntagsBlick newspaper. "We have no desire for control over the business operations of the bank. We are a long-term thinking financial investor, that is only led by commercial considerations," Lim said. "We have full confidence in (Chairman) Marcel Ospel and his CEO Marcel Rohner," Lim said. UBS sold the stake to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation this month to stop a fresh round of subprime write-downs and a second, smaller stake to an undisclosed Middle East investor. UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, has announced write-downs of around $14 billion, making it one of the most prominent victims of the credit crisis among banks so far. (Reporting by Sam Cage, editing by Jacqueline Wong) |
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