UBS offers to buy back bonds sold days before Credit Suisse deal

UBS Group is offering to buy back 2.75 billion euros (S$3.95 billion) worth of bonds it issued last Friday (Mar 17), just days before the bank said it would acquire troubled rival Credit Suisse Group following hastily arranged crisis talks. 

The Swiss lender is inviting holders of the senior unsecured bail-in notes due in March 2028 and March 2032 to tender the securities for cash at their respective re-offer price, it said in a statement on Wednesday (Mar 22). 

UBS is doing so “in light of the exceptional corporate actions announced on Mar 19, 2023, shortly after the issue date,” it said in the statement.

“The Issuer has decided to launch this exercise as a result of a prudent assessment of these recent developments and the Issuer’s long-term commitment to its credit investors.” 

The deal opens on Mar 22, with the early expiration deadline on Mar 28 and the final expiration deadline on Apr 4, according to the statement.

UBS Group said Sunday it had agreed to buy Credit Suisse Group in a historic, government-brokered deal aimed at containing a crisis of confidence that had started to spread across global financial markets.

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It will pay US$3.25 billion in an all-share deal that includes extensive government guarantees and liquidity provisions. BLOOMBERG