ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's UBS on Sunday denied a newspaper report that its Chairman Marcel Ospel would definitely leave after another year at the helm, but reiterated that his future after this period was undecided.
On Thursday, UBS proposed re-electing Ospel despite his presiding over $18 billion in subprime writedowns, but said it would reduce his term of office to one year.
UBS spokesman Christoph Meier said Ospel had agreed to stand for re-election for another year and said: "beyond that he has no further plans," repeating an earlier statement.
But that did not necessarily mean its veteran chairman would leave the group after that period, Meier said.
Swiss newspaper Sonntag had said Ospel would stay for another year "at most" and that he might leave even earlier if a successor was found sooner.
UBS will ask for approval for a 13 billion Swiss francs ($11.94 billion) capital injection at an extraordinary shareholder meeting on Wednesday. The group will discuss the board changes at its annual meeting in April.
Ospel has come under intense pressure after the bank's heavy subprime writedowns of last year, and UBS shocked investors again this month tens of billions of dollars in new exposure to risky U.S. mortgages and other securities.
UBS said last week the board had appointed Fiat
(Reporting by Douwe Miedema; Editing by Richard Hubbard)
