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Reuters
UBS to buy McDonald Investments
Wednesday September 6, 6:16 am ET

ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS AG is to acquire the branch network of McDonald Investments, a unit of KeyCorp, for up to $280 million, the Swiss investment bank said on Wednesday.
The purchase is UBS's second acquisition this year of a wealth management business in the United States, where it is seeking to expand its operations in order to take on U.S. rivals on their home turf.

Analysts welcomed the move, saying that it should help bolster UBS's position in the United States, the world's largest market for wealth management.

"We consider the transaction to be a positive one," said Vontobel analyst Claudia Meier in a note. "It should help UBS to lower its fixed costs in U.S. Wealth Management and thereby improve profitability."

McDonald Investments has around 340 financial advisers and 280 field support staff and manages 165,000 accounts with total client assets of approximately $30 billion, UBS said in a statement.

It has 51 branch offices throughout the Northeast, Midwest, Rocky Mountains and Northwest states.

The company provides wealth management services to affluent and high net worth individuals, including estate and retirement planning.

In April UBS announced it was buying the private client branch network of U.S. wealth manager Piper Jaffray for up to $875 million in cash.

At the time of the purchase Piper Jaffray had total client assets of $52 billion and more than 800 financial advisers.

UBS, which has spent around 4 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion) on acquisitions this year, also bought Brazil's last independent investment bank, Banco Pactual, and expects to complete the purchase of the global futures and options trading business of Dutch bank ABN AMRO later this year.

The bank said it expected to complete the transaction in the first quarter of 2007, subject to regulatory approval.