FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - UBS AG. plans to cut about 8,000 jobs and will likely announce the move when it presents its first-quarter financial results on May 6, Swiss weekly newspaper Sonntag reported, without saying where it got the information.
Some 3,000 cuts will initially affect the company's operations in the United States and in western Europe, with the remaining 5,000 jobs to be eliminated this autumn, primarily in administrative functions, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for UBS declined to confirm the figure, but said there will be capacity adjustments at the company's investment banking operations, and that the number of employees will fall over the coming year as the bank does not fill positions that free up.
The newspaper also cited insiders as saying UBS will likely have to take further writedowns of almost 10 billion Swiss francs, leading to a first-quarter loss of 12 billion francs.
It also said Deutsche Bank AG. bought some of UBS's U.S. real estate loan portfolio. maria.sheahan@thomsonreuters.com dpa/mas/ejp COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
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