Shares of UBS were up in Switzerland. The move is being attributed to investor relief over the Chairman's (Marcel Ospel) departure. The company is also asking shareholders to approve approximately $15.07 billion US dollars in additional funds to support its shrinking capital base. S&P cut its rating on UBS from AA to AA-.
Apparently, the Q1 loss is driven by $19 billion in write-downs in illiquid real-estate assets. This brings their total to around $33 billion in total write-downs. Of interest is how UBS plans to place these losses in a separate unit, initially funding the unit, while exploring the option of a spin-off or outright sell.
US futures are rising this morning (up close to 1%), apparently on the belief that the recent write-downs from Deutsche Bank at $3.9 billion (and UBS today) would be the last of the major credit-related problems.
Update: Of interest was a report that the Swiss Exchange is not allowing short sales of UBS today. The move today - a 10% pop instead of an expected 10% drop. Probably not the entire reason for the move, but I am sure it didn't hurt.
Ticker: UBS
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