into a $1.3 billion loan in 2014 to finance the purchase of 10 per cent of Oil Search.
Renwick has accepted evidence from consulting firm Brattle Group that UBS made $175 million plus and interest from a series of loan transactions, or about $80 million more than the “fair value”. UBS should make these documents public as soon as possible and, if the documents do not reveal the amount it earned in fees, it should publish that that information as well.UBS says it only made about $28 million from the PNG loan, but there are rumours it was closer to $100 million. The truth is probably somewhere between these two numbers.
Also, the Brattle Group does not appear to have made any assessment of the market risks assumed by UBS in the hedging contracts put in place to protect the downside from a fall in the Oil Search share price. It is impossible to separate the UBS loan inquiry from the political machinations in PNG, which is holding an election in June.