UBS Buying Majority of Siemens' Real Estate Funds Unit

MUNICH-Europe’s largest bank is looking to expand its asset management activities in Europe’s largest economy. Zurich-based UBS AG and locally based Siemens AG have signed an agreement whereby UBS Beteiligungs-GmbH & Co. KG will acquire a 51% stake in the real estate funds business of Siemens Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH.Siemens Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH oversees $2.7 billion in real estate investments and has 36 employees. The transaction is expected to close by the beginning of the second quarter of 2005, after which the business unit will be renamed UBS Real Estate Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH and joined with UBS Global Asset Management’s real estate organization. In advance of the closing of the transaction, Siemens Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH will peel off its securities business into a newly established Kapitalanlagegesellschaft operating under the same name. Siemens Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH is headed by Dr. Andreas Kneip who will continue the management of the real estate business as managing director and head of UBS Real Estate Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH. The existing UBS real estate business in Germany under the leadership of Christoph Wittkop will be integrated into the UBS Real Estate KAG, which will be located in Munich. UBS’s real estate business in Europe will now employ a total of approximately 95 staff. “This agreement with Siemens is a great step forward in developing our business in Germany and, in particular, continuing the expansion of our real estate business in Europe,” says UBS Global Asset Management CEO John Fraser in a prepared statement. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. The Siemens stake is UBS’s second purchase in Germany in recent months. In December, it closed on its acquisition of Sauerborn Trust AG, which manages about 6 billion euros for 100 of the country’s wealthiest families and family-owned companies. Combined with UBS’s existing German wealth management business, UBS says it is now the leading advisory service for ultra-high net worth individuals.