UBSW Suffers From Enron Connection

The Swiss-owned investment bank launched its online trading business, UBSSWenergy.com, in February, soon after it acquired a large part of the Enron energy business complete with 630 former Enron employees. The business is even run out of Enron's old trading floor in downtown Houston.

Although David Walker, a UBS spokesman is quoted by Reuters as saying that the business has signed up 40 counterparties and is in the process of signing up 'well over' a hundred others, industry sources are not sure how successful the business will be in the short-term. An unnamed source is quoted as saying: 'You can change the sign but everyone knows it's still Enron.....And Enron is why we all got into this whole mess.'

The business will be operating under UBS Warburg's guidelines and risk controls and the product offerings are currently not as extensive or complex as those previously offered by Enron. Having said this, there are still thought to be many companies in the sector who have a great deal of resentment toward the bankrupt energy group and word on the street is that UBSWenergy is likely to suffer from 'an Enron hangover.'