Deals & People March 9, 2009

UBS Grabs Schoff Team from Smith Barney

For the second time in about two weeks, UBS said it has lured away a Smith Barney advisory group.
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UBS said Monday it had named William L. Schoff, a 24-year financial services veteran, as a managing director. In the latest move, UBS will support corporate clients and provide wealth management and education to employees involved in company stock plans.

The Schoff Group’s 10 team members, including five financial advisers who also provide wealth management and corporate services, join him in the move from Citigroup, where Schoff was a managing director and a senior adviser in the Citi Family Office, according to a UBS announcement.

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Citigroup and Morgan Stanley agreed in January to form a joint venture and make the largest brokerage in the world with 20,000 financial advisers and $1.7 trillion in client assets (see “Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Is Born’).

“I am excited about joining UBS, which I have respected as a competitor for years,” Schoff said, in the announcement. “UBS has a strong balance sheet, a sophisticated wealth management offering for affluent clients, and a robust platform for corporate clients. It is the only firm in the marketplace that delivers in all three areas.”

The announcement said the Schoff Group’s service includes an education program for executives and employees covering financial planning, retirement planning, stock options and more.

UBS announced in late February that it had named Smith Barney veteran Robert J. Callanan, Jr. as a managing director.

Joining the firm with Callanan was a team of six members who specialize in executive and management equity compensation plans that provide awards to senior corporate managers (see “Callanan to Lead UBS Equity Compensation Group’).

Products March 9, 2009

S&P Index Targets Companies with Low Carbon Footprints

Standard&Poor's announced the launch of the first in a series of global low carbon indexes to meet investor demands for environmentally focused indexes.
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The S&P U.S. Carbon Efficient Index will measure the performance of large-cap U.S. companies with relatively low carbon emissions, while seeking to closely track the return of the S&P 500, according to a release. The new Index—part of the Standard & Poor’s global thematic index series—provides a benchmark to the market, as represented by the S&P 500, while allowing investors to create financial products that seek to gain exposure from a more environmentally efficient perspective, S&P said.

The Index is composed of constituents of the S&P 500 that have a relatively low Carbon Footprint, as calculated by Trucost Plc. The environmental data organization quantifies the environmental impact of more than 4,500 companies across different sectors and geographies. Carbon Footprint is calculated as the company’s annual greenhouse gas emissions assessment (expressed as tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) divided by annual revenue.

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The index is rebalanced quarterly, at which point the stocks in the S&P 500 are ranked by their Carbon Footprint. The 100 equities with the highest Carbon Footprints, whose aggregate exclusion does not reduce any individual GICS sector weight of the S&P 500 by more than 50%, are removed.

Through 2008, the average annual Carbon Footprint of the S&P U.S. Carbon Efficient Index was 48% lower than that of the S&P 500, according to the release.

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