UBS Discounts $15 Billion Offering

Shares of the troubled bank have already plunged 54% for the year with 1.97 billion shares outstanding. The new issue will result in an additional 760 million fully paid-in registered shares as the bank opts for dilution over dissolution.

UBS, however, is hardly the first investment bank to resort to capital raising efforts dilutive to existing shareholders amid the credit downturn. Others include Citigroup(C Quote) and Merrill Lynch(MER Quote).

UBS shares were up 1.7% to $29.84 in trading Thursday morning on the NYSE. Rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse(CS Quote), which has managed to avoid the heavy losses that UBS has experienced, but still endured writedowns, was flat at around $52.11.