UBS exit concentrates commodities in fewer hands

By Jane Merriman

LONDON (Reuters) - UBS (UBSN.VX) axed most of its global commodities business on Friday in a retreat from a high-risk/high-return sector that many investment banks had piled into during the credit boom.

Fallout from the credit crisis, including the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bank of America's (BAC.N) proposed takeover of Merrill Lynch, is likely to cause a concentration of commodities trade among fewer more well established players.

"Banks are being forced to de-leverage and scale back risk, so unless they have built adequate infrastructure (in commodities) they don't feel they can afford it," said David Williams, head of European banks research at Fox-Pitt, Kelton.

Williams said UBS would not be the only one to take this view, but he added that banks with sizeable commodities businesses and a competitive advantage would stick with it.

UBS will shut its global commodities business, including in power and gas, agriculturals and base metals, as part of a wider shake-up of its investment bank, which will cut 2,000 jobs in total.

The Swiss bank will keep its precious metals business, where it has had a presence for nearly a century, as it is integral to the firm's wealth management activities, a UBS spokesman said.

The Swiss bank is the world's largest wealth manager.

UBS has so-called category two membership at the London Metal Exchange, which gives it the right to use the exchange's electronic trading system as well as trade by telephone but does not give access to open outcry on the trading floor.