Andre Esteves, head of UBS’s fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) business in London, is leaving his global post to return to Brazil, where he will continue to head
UBS Pactual, the shop’s LatAm business.
At first blush, the move appears to be a major demotion for the former star trader turned billionaire CEO. Esteves, a proven risk manager and risk taker, was tapped to head UBS’s ailing fixed income division last summer.
By year-end, however, rumors circulated that he had sought to buy back Pactual in an effort to appease the shop’s former partners who made no effort to disguise their displeasure at having to share profits with the rest of the sickly Swiss institution.
Senior investment banking officials tell LatinFinance that Esteves’ return to Brazil has nothing to do with his rumored shenanigans, the veracity of which UBS has repeatedly denied. Following $25bn in fixed income write downs in late 2007 and early 2008, UBS is exiting most of its proprietary
and risk-oriented fixed income strategies, choosing to focus purely on client-oriented flow, according to a New York-based official.
The source adds that Esteves’ trader background is no longer relevant to the whittled down FICC business at UBS, which now being overseen on an interim basis by Jerker Johansson, UBS chairman and CEO.
