UBS To Shut Listed Funds Unit

 UBS will close its U.K. listed investment funds business, which includes exchange-listed hedge fund products.

The move is part of a wide-ranging plan to refocus on the firm’s investment-banking activities. The group, which employs 10, is to be shut down by the end of the year, Financial News reports, citing an internal memo.

“We will effect an orderly rundown of these activities between now and the end of the year, during which time we will look to transfer the team as a going concern to another financial institution,” a UBS spokesman told FN.

The listed funds group provides sales, market-making, research and corporate broking, and has seen a slowdown in business since a flurry of hedge funds listed vehicles two years ago. Among those was the launch of Marshall Wace’s MW Tops, for which UBS served as joint global coordinator and bookrunner.