HONG KONG (Reuters) – UBS Group AG has increased its stake in a Chinese securities joint venture to 67% from 51%, the Swiss bank said on Friday, as it seeks to bolster its presence in the world’s second-largest economy.
UBS acquired stakes of 14.01% and 1.99% in the venture from Guangdong Provincial Communications Group and China Energy Capital Holdings, respectively, the bank said, without disclosing the price of the share purchases.
The joint venture, UBS Securities Ltd, was established 15 years ago and in 2018 UBS became the first foreign financial firm to hold a majority stake in such a unit as China removed the foreign ownership cap of 49% in 2017.
Rival Credit Suisse boosted its stake in its securities joint venture in 2020 to a controlling 51%, while JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs converted their brokerage ventures into wholly-owned subsidiaries last year.
HSBC is also planning to buy out its mainland securities joint venture partner, Reuters reported in January.
(Reporting by Selena Li; editing by Anshuman Daga, Jason Neely and Alex Richardson)
