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Swiss Banking Giant UBS Lists Global Shares On Wall Street

Mike Godfrey, Tax-news.com, New York

23 May 2000

In a clear statement that it sees its best prospects for future success and growth outside of Switzerland, Swiss Banking giant UBS last week became the first bank to issue global shares that can be traded in stock markets around the world. "A globally traded share is symbolic of UBS as a global firm," UBS Chief Executive Marcel Ospel said.
Last Tuesday UBS listed its global shares on the New York Stock Exchange to become on of 400 non-US companies traded on Wall Street. However, unlike the vast majority of European companies, UBS chose the global share mechanism for its listing rather than the preferred route of the American Depository Receipts (ADR) scheme.

The ADR scheme requires domestic shares to be converted into US-listed securities which are then registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. There is no difference in the treatment of global shares and ADR shares with regard to disclosure and regulation, but shareholders of global shares can elect to receive dividends in US dollars, euros or a number of other major currencies.

"Global shares enable virtually seamless cross-border trading, allowing non-US companies to increase liquidity and pricing efficiency in the US market while permitting US investors access to the home market shares on the same terms as local investors", a spokesperson for the NYSE said.

The head of international business at the New York Stock Exchange, Georges Ugeux, said he expects more overseas companies to follow the lead of UBS and list on Wall Street via global shares rather than ADRs. Currently $22.8b shares worth around $750b (one third of the NYSE market capitalisation) comes from (mostly ADR) overseas shares, but these shares only account for 12% of trading volume.

While Europe still seems wedded to ADRs, the mood on Wall Street is swinging towards global shares as their listing process is both cheaper and less cumbersome and they offer greater flexibility in the market. But for most European players there are still political and regulatory differences that need to be overcome before global shares become an everyday reality.

With the globalisation of financial markets and cross border mergers and acquisitions on the increase, interest in global securities in the private sector could soon be raised to the point where there is sufficient pressure on political leaders to resolve their differences and abandon the sort of petty in-fighting that the OECD, WTO and other international bodies have become so renowned for in recent times.

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