Singapore to invest almost 10 billion dollars in troubled UBS

SINGAPORE, Dec 10, 2007 (AFP) - The Singapore government's investment arm announced Monday that it will inject almost 10 billion US dollars into Swiss bank UBS, its largest ever investment in a company.







The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) said it would inject 11 billion Swiss francs (9.

74 billion US dollars) into UBS, which on Monday announced further writedowns of around 10 billion dollars (6.



8 billion euros) due to the US subprime mortgage crisis.

GIC said an undisclosed strategic investor in the Middle East is injecting an additional two billion francs into the bank.

"We made this significant investment in UBS because we have confidence in the long-term growth potential of the bank's businesses, particularly its global wealth management business," GIC's deputy chairman and executive director, Tony Tan Keng Yam, told a news conference.

"This is the largest investment that GIC has made in any company," Tan said.

GIC has committed to subscribe to 11 billion Swiss francs worth of mandatory convertible notes that will pay a coupon of nine percent until conversion into ordinary shares about two years after issuance, UBS said.

Depending on the conversion price,