GLOBAL- UBS Asset Management is bringing its asset management companies under a single global brand known as UBS Global Asset Management as of April 8th.

The new name will replace regional brand names, including Brinson Partners, Brinson Advisors, Brinson Canada in the Americas region; Phillips & Drew in the UK and UBS Asset Management in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa.

Says a spokeswoman for UBS: “the name reflects the scope, distribution and approach of the business group better. We feel it is better represented by a single name as it will eliminate the confusion as we have all these brand names in the regions.”

UBS says there will be no change to the organization's investment philosophy and global CIO Jeffrey Diermeier will continue to oversee global investment. "Over the past few years, we have successfully integrated our investment platform across the world," he says.

The speciality businesses of multi manager hedge fund provider GAM, alternative investment house O'Connor, quant enhanced index manager DSI, ETF provider Fresco and UBS Timber and UBS Realty will retain their names.

“We feel that because they are specialised capabilities, they are most clearly positioned to retain their existing names because there is a brand value in that,” says the spokeswoman.

UBS Asset Management, UBS Warburg, UBS PaineWebber and UBS Switzerland make up the four business groups of UBS AG and the asset management arm oversees assets of Chf672bn