london feb 1 reuters breakingviews  the midatlantic ridge an underwater tectonic boundary is part of the longest mountain range on earth a similar divide exists between exuberant us bank valuations and those in europe ubs ubsgs chief executive ralph hamers is trying to bridge the fissure it’s a tough ask the 68 billion swiss bank has long griped about being lumped in with stodgy continental lenders like deutsche bank dbkgnde the americas and asiapacific accounted for more than half of adjusted pretax profit last year the zurichbased group makes money mostly from fees rather than traditional lending sheltering it from low european rates so why shouldn’t hamers aspire to a valuation closer to the 25 times tangible book multiple of its 184 billion us rival morgan stanley msn that compares with his own mark of 12 closing the gap would double ubs’ share price adding about 70 billion to its equity value the board even recently hired morgan stanley’s colm kelleher as chair read more  hamers on tuesday laid out his plan which involves hitting a 15 to 18 return on common equity tier 1 capital comparing ubs targets with morgan stanley is complicated by the fact that the swiss bank insists on using cet1 which strips out tax assets rather than the more common measure of tangible equity but the top of ubs range is roughly what analysts expect of morgan stanley this year according to breakingviews calculations using refinitiv data a focus on cost discipline and share buybacks help hamers’ cause but analysts on average expect a mere 14 return on cet1 this year and next the missing ingredient is revenue growth ubs’ top line is projected to grow at a measly 16 compound annual rate between 2022 and 2024 using refinitiv data compared with morgan stanley’s 41 hamers wants to turbocharge sales by winning clients to his digital offering last week he bought us automated wealthmanager wealthfront for 14 billion which brings nifty technology and about 470000 clients ubs could also try to sell more wealth products to the 2 million us customers that currently use its workplace retirementplanning schemes but local us banks and digital upstarts are gunning for many of the same clients and it’s unclear what ubs’ edge is in this ultracompetitive market the bank’s expertise and heritage lies in managing money for multimillionaires and billionaires through facetoface advice rather than whizzy apps for hamers the midatlantic ridge may prove insurmountable  ubs on feb 1 said it generated 87 billion of revenue in the final three months of 2021 up 8 compared with the same period a year earlier pretax profit fell by 13 yearonyear to 17 billion partly because of a legal charge the bank booked in relation to a french case about allegedly helping clients evade taxes  chief executive ralph hamers also unveiled new profitability targets for the swiss group he is aiming for a 15 to 18 return on common equity tier 1 capital over time and a costtoincome ratio of between 70 and 73  in 2021 ubs’ return on cet1 was 175 and its costs were roughly 74 of revenue  analysts reckon the bank will generate a 141 return on cet1 with a 74 costincome ratio both this year and next based on companysupplied consensus estimates collected on jan 11