UBS Opts for Digital Shareholder Meeting

The world’s largest wealth management giant UBS is canceling plans for a physical shareholder meeting at the end of next month. It is holding fast to a hefty dividend.

Swiss-based UBS will conduct its annual general meeting on April 29 online, it said in a statement on Monday. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus is stopped assemblies of more than five people in Switzerland until at least April 19.

The bank also said it will hold to plans to pay $0.73 per share as a dividend. UBS’ lead regulator Finma last week urged Swiss financial firms to rethink their 2019 payouts in order to spare their capital for the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Holding its shareholder meeting online means UBS is avoiding public criticism of its pay policies and of its handling of a high-stakes French criminal trial. UBS’ investors last year denied directors and top management an all-clear because of the case, which is due to head into appeal in June.

UBS said it would ask shareholders to vet management and its board for 2019 on all issues – except on the French case. As previously disclosed, directors David Sidwell, Isabelle Romy, and Robert Scully aren’t standing for reelection, while UBS is proposing Mark Hughes and Nathalie Rachou in their place.