Top Firm Rocked By 'Massive, Premeditated Raid'
And the firm has confirmed that it has filed a temporary restraining order in the US against Jefferies and several employees. The Swiss bank is said to have claimed that its smaller rival orchestrated an 'unlawful raid' on what is understood to be a highly lucrative part of its investment banking business (according to The New York Times, the healthcare group has worked on transactions worth $567bn since 2005, and generated over $1bn in revenues).
UBS said in a statement that the bank 'sought this injunction to ensure that Jefferies adheres to legal obligations and standard industry practices, and the senior UBS departing employees are held to their notice periods and other legal and contractual obligations they previously agreed to'.
Interestingly, The New York Times has unearthed a 2003 e-mail Lorello allegedly sent to a client which cautions: 'Jefferies has no track record of successful execution in the healthcare area, and they have not completed a healthcare high-yield offering since 1993....Because Jefferies is such a low-quality firm, no major firms will co-manage to them'. Times have changed over at Jefferies, however, which continues to beef up on a number of fronts, despite the financial and economic downturn. Only this week, the firm announced that its second-quarter earnings are likely to be strong, possibly coming in twice what most analysts are expecting.
The last major recruitment spat UBS was involved in was in 2008, when up to 80 private banking employees quit to go join Vestra, a UK private banking start-up. In this case, UBS obtained an injunction similar to the one being sought in the US, and the matter was resolved.
Finally, UBS also confirmed Friday that it has raised $3.5bn from 'a small number of institutional investors' to bolster its capital position. The bank also said that it was likely to post a loss in the second-quarter.