Group structure and shareholders

UBS Group legal entity structure

Under Swiss company law, UBS is organized as a limited company, a corporation that has issued shares of common stock to investors. UBS AG is the parent company of the UBS Group (Group).

The legal entity structure of UBS is designed to support its businesses within an efficient legal, tax, regulatory and funding framework. Neither the business divisions of UBS nor its Corporate Center are separate legal entities: they primarily operate out of the parent bank, UBS AG, through its branches worldwide. This structure is designed to capitalize on the increased business opportunities and cost efficiencies offered by the use of a single legal platform and to enable the flexible and efficient use of capital. Where it is neither possible nor efficient to operate out of the parent bank, businesses operate through local subsidiaries. Instan­ces of this are usually due to local legal, tax or regulatory rules or a result of additional legal entities joining the Group through acquisition.

Operational Group structure

On 31 December 2008, the operational structure of the Group comprised the Corporate Center and the three business divisions: Global Wealth Management & Business Banking, Global Asset Management and the Investment Bank. In this report, performance is reported according to this structure. However, on 10 February 2009, UBS announced that Global Wealth Management & Business Banking had been divided into two new business divisions: Wealth Management & Swiss Bank and Wealth Management Americas. Refer to the "Strategy and structure" section of this report for more information on the restructuring of the business divisions.

Listed and non-listed companies belonging to the Group (consolidated entities)

The Group includes a number of subsidiaries, none of which, however, are listed companies.

Refer to "Note 34 Significant subsidiaries and associates" in the financial statements of this report for details of significant operating subsidiary companies of the Group

Significant shareholders

Chase Nominees Ltd., London, acting in its capacity as a nominee for other investors, was registered with 7.19% of all shares issued on 31 December 2008, compared with 7.99% at year-end 2007 and 8.81% at year-end 2006.

DTC (Cede & Co.), New York, The Depository Trust Company, a US securities clearing organization, was registered as a shareholder for a large number of beneficial owners with 9.89% of all shares issued on 31 December 2008 (14.15% on 31 December 2007).

According to UBS's "Regulation on the Registration of Shares", voting rights of nominees are restricted to 5%, but clearing and settlement organizations are exempt from this restriction. On 31 December 2008, no other shareholder had reported holding 3% or more of all voting rights. Ownership of UBS shares is widely spread. The tables on the next page provide ­information about the distribution of UBS shareholders by category and geography. This information relates only to registered shareholders and cannot be assumed to be representative of the entire UBS investor base. Only shareholders registered in the share register as "shareholders with voting rights" are entitled to exercise voting rights.

Under the Swiss Stock Exchange Act, anyone holding shares in a company listed in Switzerland, or derivative rights related to shares of such a company, has to notify the company and the stock exchange if the holding attains, falls below or exceeds one of the following thresholds: 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 33 1/3, 50, or 66 2?3% of the voting rights, whether they are exercisable or not. The detailed disclosure requirements and the methodology for calculating the thresholds are defined in the "Ordinance of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading" (disclosure of shareholdings). In particular, the ordinance prohibits the netting of so-called acquisition positions (i.e. in particular shares, conversion rights and acquisition rights or obligations) with disposal positions (i.e. rights or obligations to sell). It further requires that each such position be calculated separately and reported as soon as it reaches a threshold.

In addition to the notification requirements according to Swiss law, as of 16 May 2008, shareholders of UBS also have notification obligations with regard to major shareholdings in shares of UBS under the German Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz, WpHG). These obligations arise due to the fact that UBS has chosen Germany as its home member state within the meaning of the European Union's "Prospectus Directive". The obligations came into force with the first filing of the listing application for the new shares created as a result of the stock dividend by UBS on SWX Europe, a regulated market in the EU. According to the WpHG, anyone whose shareholding in UBS attains, exceeds or falls below the thresholds of 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50 or 75% of the voting rights has to notify, without undue delay, such change simultaneously to UBS and the German Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht; BaFin). The detailed disclosure requirements and the methodology for calculating the thresholds are defined in paragraphs 21 et seq. of the WpHG.

At year-end 2008, UBS held a stake of UBS registered shares corresponding to less than 3% of the total share capital of UBS AG. At the same time, UBS had disposal positions relating to 891,230,556 voting rights of UBS AG and these corresponded to 30.39% of the total voting rights of UBS AG. These consisted mainly of 8.91% of voting rights attached to employee options, 9.22% of voting rights attached to the mandatory convertible notes issued by UBS in March 2008 and 11.23% of voting rights attached to the mandatory convertible notes issued by UBS in December 2008.

Cross shareholdings

UBS has no cross shareholdings in excess of a reciprocal 5% of capital or voting rights with any other company.