UBS on top in share deals

SYDNEY - UBS, the world's biggest money manager, regained its place as the leading arranger of Australian share sales after Macquarie Bank failed to win a role in the country's biggest offering in seven years.

UBS will have arranged US$4.52 billion ($6.85 billion) of equity and equity-linked sales after the A$8 billion ($9 billion) offering of a Government stake in Australia's largest telephone company Telstra, beating Macquarie's US$4.46 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Zurich-based UBS has beaten Australia's largest securities firm to the top spot in all but one year since 2001.

"UBS is servicing a good chunk of corporate Australia," said Greg Bundy, former head of Merrill Lynch's Australian unit and now executive chairman of InterFinancial, a merger advisory firm in Sydney. "It's a two-horse race."

Under the leadership of chief executive Peter Wuffli, 48, the Swiss bank has won its biggest share of underwriting assignments globally in at least eight years.

UBS lags behind only Goldman Sachs, having won US$32.3 billion of sales so far this year, according to Bloomberg data.

In Australia, UBS last month raised A$300 million for Babcock & Brown, Macquarie's biggest domestic competitor, and was one of three banks to help arrange a A$944 million initial public offering for mining equipment supplier Emeco in July.

- BLOOMBERG