By Martin de Sa'Pinto and Lisa Jucca
ZURICH, April 27 (Reuters.com) - UBS (UBSN.CH)
Switzerland's largest bank by assets said it had appointed Alex Wilmot-Sitwell -- a veteran UBS banker -- and Carsten Kengeter, who recently joined from Goldman Sachs, as co-heads of the business after Johansson resigned following little more than a year in the job.
The appointments come two months after former Credit Suisse
"The appointment is consistent with Gruebel's strategy since he came to UBS. He is leaving no stone unturned to try and recover and we see progressive change at management level," said Elie Darwish, an analyst with Exane BNP Paribas.
Insider Wilmot-Sitwell has built up a wealth of contacts among the world's business elite during a career in M&A and corporate finance, analysts say, while Kengeter is tipped to turn around UBS's ailing fixed income operations.
Earlier this month Gruebel brought in Ulrich Koerner, another former top Credit Suisse executive, as his Chief Operating Officer to lead a cost-cutting drive.
Gruebel sold a Brazilian unit of UBS for $2.5 billion a few days after that and then announced he would cut 8,700 jobs.
He also said the bank, which reported the biggest annual loss ever by a Swiss company last year, would post a further 2 billion Swiss franc loss in the first quarter of 2009.
That warning contrasted sharply with the net profit of 2 billion francs reported by rival Credit Suisse over the same period.
A banking source said Gruebel was still assessing which businesses to keep and which managers to replace.
Shares in UBS were down 0.7 percent at 0901 GMT, outperforming a 1.5 percent fall in the DJ Stoxx index of European banks <.SX7P>.
Analysts said that news at the weekend that the Swiss government was seeking a deal with Washington to end an ongoing tax fraud probe against UBS was also a positive factor.
NEW APPOINTMENTS
Wilmot-Sitwell, 48, joined UBS in 1996 and is a member of the group executive board. He has been joint global head of the investment banking department at the world's biggest wealth manager since November 2005 and chairman of UBS Group Europe, Middle East and Africa since January 2008.
Kengeter, 42, joined in September 2008 from Goldman Sachs and is joint global head of fixed income, currencies and commodities. He will join the group executive board.
Analysts say Kengeter's expertise in fixed income will be valuable to UBS as this segment has been one of the worst hit at the Swiss bank in the current crisis.
UBS is seeking a return to profitability and a brand makeover after massive losses in risky U.S. investments forced it to write down the value of its assets by more than $50 billion and turn to the Swiss government for help in October.
Monday's investment banking changes followed a year in which Johansson -- who was appointed by previous UBS CEO Marcel Rohner with a restructuring brief of his own -- oversaw an exit from municipal bonds, structured debt and proprietary trading, as well as most commodities businesses.
"The continued changes surely do not help to bring stability to the investment bank, but may be part of Gruebel's plan to further renew the key positions within the bank," said Mathias Bueeler, an analyst with Kepler.
Earlier this month UBS said it would cut staff to 67,500 by 2010, having already shrunk from a peak of 83,800 a year ago, with the bulk of cuts earmarked for the investment banking unit.
(editing by John Stonestreet)
