After Credit Suisse's annual general meeting yesterday, the UBS shareholder meeting was dominated by the takeover of its rival. Shareholder representatives called for responsible treatment of employees.
That the takeover of Credit Suisse represents an extraordinary opportunity for UBS was not lost on the bank's top officials at Wednesday's annual general meeting (AGM) in Basel. The «upside» aspects were also repeatedly brought up in the speeches of shareholders and their representatives.
The risks and the almost inevitable staff reductions resulting from the merger were also addressed on numerous occasions.
The head of the Ethos investment foundation, Vincent Kaufmann, addressed press reports the number of employees could be reduced by up to 30,000 and called on the company's management to retain as many jobs as possible and to draw up fair social plans.
Good Growth Opportunity
While the takeover of Credit Suisse is a good opportunity for growth and expansion, it also offers systemic risks and hurdles in execution. Kaufmann cited a potentially dominant competitive position in Switzerland and reiterated Ethos' earlier call to consider a spin-off of Credit Suisse Switzerland when the time is right.
The head of Ethos took a positive view of the voluntary consultative vote on the sustainability report but still has some weaknesses. There was no information on the compliance violations that had occurred, on the gender pay gap, or the taxes paid in the individual countries. The bank's climate targets could also be more ambitious.
In response, chairman Colm Kelleher said that UBS aims to have one of the best climate records in the industry and is making great progress in this regard, and is on track with its climate targets, he said.
Refreshing Cultural Change
Nicolas Goetschmann of the Actares shareholders' association also called for responsible treatment of employees at both Credit Suisse and UBS.
A UBS staff representative thanked outgoing CEO Ralph Hamers, saying his change of culture had been refreshing. There were also calls for inflation compensation and a continuation of employee programs.
All Motions Approved
There were no surprises in the votes. All motions of the board of directors were approved, including the compensation report, the change of the share capital currency to dollars from Swiss francs, a new share buyback program of up to six billion dollars, and the climate report. The latter item, however, received a relatively poor result with around 81 percent approval.
The board of directors and executive committee were discharged by a large majority. As in previous years, this again excluded the tax case in France.
Kelleher and the other members of the Board of Directors standing for re-election were also confirmed. However, the chairman achieved the worst result in the election with 89.9 percent of votes in favor, while Vice Chairman Lukas Gaehwiler achieved the best with 97.2 percent with others receiving at least 94 percent.
Around 1,130 shareholders attended the AGM in person at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel. However, with 3.2 million voting rights, they represented only a small proportion. The vast majority of the almost 1.9 billion votes present were with the proxy. In total, 78.9 percent of the share capital was represented.
