Veteran chairman of UOB to step down

SINGAPORE: United Overseas Bank (UOB), which capped a strong earnings season for Singapore banks with a better-than-expected profit rise, said its long-time chairman is stepping down next year in a surprise move.

The lender also said it was interested in buying the Asian asset management businesses belonging to Dutch bank and insurer ING – which has a portfolio valued at about Us$54bil – if the price was right.

Wee Cho Yaw, who turns 84 next year and whose family controls UOB, would step down as chairman in April, his son and UOB chief executive Wee Ee Cheong said at an earnings briefing.

Cho Yaw became chairman and chief executive of UOB in 1974 but relinquished his CEO position to Ee Cheong in April 2007, according to the bank’s latest annual report.

Singapore’s third richest man, according to Forbes magazine, had never indicated any retirement plans and had been upset when reporters raised the subject.

Cho Yaw, who will continue to advise the bank in an honorary role of chairman emeritus, oversaw UOB’S expansion from a tiny lender with just one branch in Singapore into a regional giant with large operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Hsieh Fu Hua, a former CEO of stock exchange operator Singapore Exchange (SGX), would become the non-executive chairman of singapore’s third biggest bank, UOB said.

Hsieh is currently a member of UOB’S board as well as a director at state investor Temasek.

“It’s a natural progression. Hsieh has a lot of experience from his days at SGX, be it with regulations, governance, or strategy,” said Ng Kian Teck, lead analyst at SIAS Research.

Ee Cheong said the impending change of chairman would not have any effect on UOB’S strategy of regional expansion and focusing on fee-based income from services such as wealth and asset management which the bank had embarked on in recent years.

UOB also confirmed interest in assets belonging to ING for the first time, after a report in May that it was on a shortlist of suitors for its Asian asset management businesses. But Ee Cheong said on Tuesday a lot depended on the price.

“As an organisation, our capital is strong so we should take advantage of that,” he said. — Reuters