Agglomeration
The Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on April 18 that it has approved UBS’s merger with Credit Suisse (CS).
The two companies signed an agreement on their merger on April 6 and filed their merger notification with the KFTC on April 25.
Both UBS and CS are global investment banks based in Switzerland. The Swiss government is promoting the merger by promising to provide liquidity support of approximately CHF109 billion (154.3 trillion won or US$120 billion) and guarantee approximately CHF 9 billion (12.7 trillion won or US$9.9 billion) of potential losses from assets acquired by UBS.
UBS branches or entities operating in Korea include UBS Securities Limited Seoul Branch and Hana UBS Asset Management. Hana UBS Asset Management is 51 percent owned by UBS and 49 percent owned by Hana Bank, while CS has CS Securities Seoul Branch and CS Seoul Branch.
The KFTC said it approved the merger as it concluded that the merger was not likely to substantially restrict competition in the Korean financial investment business market after examining four Korean markets -- securities and derivatives brokerage, M&A advisory, debt capitalization management (DCM), and asset management services.