UBS Group AG plans to end a deal Credit Suisse struck with Apollo Global Management Inc. for the management of assets linked to its securitized products group.
Credit Suisse
Bloomberg News reported previously that UBS was considering renegotiating parts of the Apollo deal, which Credit Suisse struck months before it was rescued by UBS in March. Executives were particularly unhappy with the fees Credit Suisse had agreed to pay Apollo to manage assets that remained on its books.
Representatives for UBS and Apollo declined to comment.
Credit Suisse agreed to sell the securitized products business, known as SPG, in an unsuccessful, last-ditch effort to win back investor confidence. As part of the November deal, Apollo took over a large part of the assets that the SPG business oversaw. Credit Suisse was expected to provide financing for some of the assets and keep about $20 billion of them, which Apollo would manage for a fee.
The transaction was scheduled to be completed in the first half of this year, and a "substantial first close" was already announced in February. The following month, UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse in a government-brokered rescue.
As part of the February "first close," a large part of assets and employees were transferred to an Apollo subsidiary, Atlas SP. That transaction fully closed in the spring and wasn't affected by the UBS plan to pull out of part of the deal, said one of the people. UBS's decision to end the management agreement for the legacy assets won't result in a windfall for Apollo, this person said.
The securitized products group bought and sold securities backed by pools of mortgages and other assets, such as car loans or credit-card debt. It traced its roots back to Wall Street's raucous mortgage-bond scene in the 1980s. New York-based trader Jay Kim, who led the SPG, joined Apollo as part of the deal and has continued to grow the business. Atlas co-led a financing raise of more than $100 million for Lighter Capital, the firm
