Phillips & Drew

Phillips & Drew was a large stockbroking partnership and company based in the City of London, England. It was fully acquired by the Union Bank of Switzerland in 1986, which itself merged with the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998, to become UBS AG.

In 1885, George Allen Phillips became a member of the . After several unsuccessful partnerships, Phillips formed a partnership with his chief clerk, Harvey Richard ('Dick') Drew, to form G.A. Phillips & Co. in 1895. The name of the firm was changed to Phillips & Drew in 1905.

In 1905, the firm assumed the Phillips & Drew name with the arrival of Geoffrey Harvey Drew, Dick's brother, as a new partner and the retirement of Phillips (though he rejoined the firm in 1907). Until the late 1940s, the Drew family continued to hold a controlling position within the firm.

The firm remained relatively small with business dependent upon individual clients until the arrival of Sidney Perry, who joined the firm as a partner in 1936. Perry, would rise to the leadership of the firm over the next decade and by the beginning of the 1950s, he was running Phillips & Drew. Under Perry's leadership, the firm shifted its focus from retail brokerage business toward institutional investors. The firm began to derive most of its income in dealing in gilts, a type of British government bond, for institutions. Perry also instituted a merit-based hiring and promotion system, moving away from hiring on the basis of family or personal connections. The firm grew to over 350 employees by the end of the 1960s.

Also, under Perry, the firm began to establish a reputation as a leading source of equity research and investment analysis.

In November 1984, Union Bank of Switzerland, predecessor of today's UBS acquired a 29.9% minority interest in Phillips & Drew and two years later announced an acquisition of the firm. At the time of the acquisition, Phillips & Drew, with 60 partners and 593 staff, was the leading dealer of gilts (as a GEMM), convertible bonds and other fixed income securities in the U.K. The firm was also a leading asset manager.