ZURICH/PARIS (Reuters) – Robert Karofsky will become sole president of UBS Group’s investment bank when Piero Novelli leaves at the end of next month to become chairman of stock exchange operator Euronext, the companies said on Monday.
The two became co-leaders of the UBS business in September 2018, when star investment banker Andrea Orcel left UBS.
Karofsky joined UBS in 2014 after stints at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and AllianceBernstein. He led the global equities business before joining Novelli atop the investment bank.
Novelli primarily focused on corporate client solutions, while Karofsky headed investor client services and oversaw the investment bank’s digital transformation.
“Under their leadership, the investment bank achieved its best fourth-quarter and full-year results since 2012, finishing 2020 with an exceptional return on attributed equity of nearly
20%,” UBS said in a statement.
“I want to personally thank Piero for his contributions to reshaping our investment bank and successfully co-leading the business, employees and our clients through the pandemic,” CEO Ralph Hamers said.
“Our world-class investment bank is critical to the success of our group strategy and I am confident Rob is the right leader to help us achieve our strategic ambitions.”
Euronext, which aims to close its 4.3 billion euro ($5.22 billion) acquisition of Borsa Italiana from the London Stock Exchange in the first half of 2021, reported higher-than-expected annual revenue this month.
Growing income from listings, trading and clearing activities after some acquisitions helped boost the company’s annual numbers.
Data published this month also showed that Euronext’s Amsterdam hub had displaced London as Europe’s biggest share trading centre after Britain left the EU’s single market following the Brexit deal.
(Reporting by Michael Shields and Sarah White; editing by Riham Alkousaa and Jason Neely)
