Lawyer Kurer to guide UBS through rapids

By Douwe Miedema, European Wealth Management Correspondent

ZURICH (Reuters) - Peter Kurer, the little-known lawyer named prospective chairman of UBS, faces the daunting task of leading the biggest victim of the global credit crisis after a series of emergency cash injections.

The 58-year-old Swiss citizen has little banking experience but knows UBS inside out after seven years as its top legal adviser, lending much-needed stability to the world's largest wealth manager after it dumped his predecessor Marcel Ospel.

"I'm not sure this is the profile the market had been anticipating," said Andreas Venditti, equity analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank, a regional bank.

"The good thing is, he may not be known to the outside world, but inside, he's well known," Venditti said.

The role of chairman at UBS, embroiled in its most serious crisis ever, was boosted by Ospel whose hands-on approach shaped the entire bank.

Kurer, a father of three, was not on a list of candidates drawn up by media that included hot shots such as Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne and controversial billionaire Swiss industrialist and former minister Christoph Blocher.

But despite his lack of fame, Kurer's qualities are undisputed, former colleagues say.

"He has got what it needs, he's capable of acting and ... he keeps his head cool in a crisis," said Heinz Schaerer, who worked with Kurer at Zurich law firm Homburger AG.

"He's a brilliant lawyer with strong management capabilities, knowledge of the financial industry, and he has a strong sense of fairness," Schaerer said.

Kurer worked as a lawyer on large mergers and acquisitions, such as the merger of Switzerland's Brown, Boverie and Sweden's Asea that created engineering firm ABB in 1988.

An avid skier and reader of literature, Kurer was also involved in the creation of drugmaker Novartis from Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy in 1996, Schaerer said.

UNEXPECTED

In what looked to be a sudden change of mind, UBS on Tuesday proposed Kurer for the role, saying current Chairman Marcel Ospel had decided not to stand for re-election at a shareholder meeting on April 23.

An invitation to the meeting published in a Swiss newspaper on Tuesday morning still said Ospel's term would be extended by another year, indicating a rapid change of plans. The bank said it had not been able to pull the advertisement.

"He needs no starting time as chairman. He knows the bank," said Urs Schenker, a lawyer at Baker & McKenzie Zurich who also worked with Kurer in a previous job.