UBS Brazil chief executive officer Sylvia Coutinho was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the company is looking for acquisition opportunities in the Brazilian market.
The company is also looking to hire additional employees for its wealth business and establish offices in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte to serve high-net-worth clients with $2.2m or more in assets even in case of failure to find a firm for acquisition, Coutinho added.
With wealth-management fees comprising a minor portion of its Brazilian revenue, the lender seeks to increase that share to 50% by 2020, while expanding assets under management to $18.5bn, according to the CEO.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter was cited by the news agency as saying that UBS attempted to acquire BNP Paribas’s Brazil wealth-management unit in October 2012, but the deal later broke down.
Meanwhile, the bank, which employees 370 people in Brazil, is also hiring for its investment bank, according to Coutinho.
"We are planning to double our revenue for the investment-banking business this year even with the weak equity markets."
Apart from Brazil, the Zurich-based UBS is also expanding wealth management in emerging markets and Asia while scaling back investment banking and exiting majority of debt-trading businesses, according to the news agency.
