UBS to put trade curbs on most commodities

UBS AG, the European bank hardest hit by the credit crisis, will stop over-the-counter trading in natural gas, crude oil, power, agricultural products and industrial metals as it cuts jobs to reduce costs.

The Zurich-based bank will retain its precious metals trading operations, started about a century ago, its commodities index unit and exchange-traded commodity derivatives business, spokesman Dominik von Arx said today by phone from London. He declined to say how many jobs would be cut. “You've got a liquidity crisis — businesses need to survive and people need to raise cash and cut costs,” Mark Mathias, chief executive officer of Quantum Asset Management Ltd in London, said today by phone. “Commodities remain a good business going forward.”

The bank said yesterday it made a “small profit” in the three months through September, its first profitable quarter in more than a year after it cut holdings in mortgage securities.

The commodities unit started in 2005 and is led by Todd Morakis, 43, in London. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index of 19 raw materials has tumbled 8.4 per cent this year, after a 25 perc ent plunge in the third quarter.

UBS will cut 2,000 jobs at its securities unit, or about 10 per cent of the total, the bank said in a statement today. UBS had already announced 6,000 job cuts in the past year. At the end of the year, the investment bank will have about 17,000 employees.

The bank acquired its power- and gas-trading business in North America in 2002 from Enron Corp, and became a member of the London Metal Exchange, the world's largest bourse for copper, in September 2005.

UBS's exchange-traded derivatives commodity unit is part of its Prime Services Group within the equity division. Clients include Singapore-based Aisling Analytics Ptd, operator of the $2.3 billion Merchant Commodity Fund.