"We did not buy Credit Suisse only to close it" - UBS CEO

ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS's CEO Ralph Hamers on Monday said the Swiss bank sees its government-orchestrated takeover of Credit Suisse as a growth opportunity, in an internal memo seen by Reuters.

"While we did not seek this transaction, we were prepared, and we see it as an opportunity to accelerate our firm's growth story," Hamers wrote. "We did not buy Credit Suisse only to close it."

(Reporting by Noele Illien; Editing by Jan Harvey)