UBS is back on a growth path: Switzerland's biggest bank is acquiring the Italian wealth management unit of a Spanish rival, its first takeover in the European business in years.

UBS has agreed to buy the Italian wealth management unit of Santander, the Spanish banking giant, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement on Tuesday. The business – Santander Private Banking, SPB Italia – is based in Milan.

The Swiss bank didn't say how much it paid for SPB Italia. The Santander unit is specialized in banking with wealthy private clients and families and has 2.7 billion euros in assets under management.

SPB Italia has branches in Milan, Varese, Brescia, Rome, Naples and Salerno. It will be integrated into UBS Italia. UBS aims to complete the transaction by the end of the first quarter 2016.

UBS in principle wants to grow organically but is nevertheless monitoring the market in a bid to find fairly valued institutes with a culture similar to its own, a spokesman of the bank told finews.ch.