UBS Offers to Buy Back Bonds Sold Days Before Credit Suisse Deal

(Bloomberg) — UBS Group AG is offering to buy back 2.75 billion euros ($2.96 billion) worth of bonds it issued Friday, just days before the bank said it would acquire troubled rival Credit Suisse Group following hastily arranged crisis talks.

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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 Wednesday.

UBS is doing so “in light of the exceptional corporate actions announced on 19 March 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 March 22, with the early expiration deadline on March 28 and the final expiration deadline on April 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. It will pay 3 billion francs ($3.25 billion) in an all-share deal that includes extensive government guarantees and liquidity provisions.

To view the relevant securities:

UBS V4.625% 03/17/28
UBS V4.75% 03/17/32

–With assistance from Kevin Kingsbury.

(Updates with additional details)