UBS may sell massive hedge fund unit: Report

ZURICH: Embattled Swiss banking giant UBS may be forced to sell a unit that is the biggest investor in hedge funds in the world in a bid to cut the size of the group, a Swiss newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The bank could sell its "Alternative and Quantitative Investments" business, the sector's biggest player with 39 billion dollars (30.1 billion euros) worth of assets under management, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported.

UBS did not comment, said the newspaper, which did not cite any sources.

The bank's chief executive Oswald Gruebel warned last Wednesday that the bank would "become smaller," and that the group would look at which businesses it would drop.

On Monday, it announced the sale of its Brazilian unit UBS Pactual for 2.5 billion dollars to Brazilian investment company Banking and Trading Group.

Switzerland's biggest bank has been struggling to recover after losing billions in the financial crisis.

It announced last week that it would slash 8,700 jobs to cut costs, and that it would report fresh losses of around two billion francs for the first three months of this year.

The bank is scheduled to post its first quarter earnings on May 5.