Published 1 February 2008
The next few weeks are the most important in Marcel Ospel's career. The chairman of UBS is under pressure to follow the examples of Stan O’Neal and Chuck Prince and fall on his sword in the wake of the Swiss bank’s horrendous performance over the past 12 months.
On February 27 he will have to battle with shareholders at an extraordinary meeting. They are increasingly angry about the disasters that have befallen UBS since 2007 – the Dillon Read Capital Management fiasco, the departures of several senior executives, the $14.5 billion of bad debt write-downs and the collapsing share price.
The meeting is being convened to approve the SFr13 billion ($11.3 billion) of investments from Singapore’s GIC and an unnamed Middle East investor. Some...
