By Elena Logutenkova

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, the European bank with the highest losses from the U.S. subprime crisis, said Chairman Marcel Ospel will step down after reporting an additional $19 billion of writedowns and a first quarter loss.

The bank will raise 15 billion francs ($15.1 billion) in fresh funds from shareholders to replenish capital, Zurich-based UBS said in an e-mailed statement today. The writedowns will lead to a loss for the first quarter of 12 billion francs, the second consecutive shortfall.

Ospel, who led the creation of UBS in a merger a decade ago, will be succeeded by general counsel Peter Kurer. The Swiss bank joins Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. in turning to investors for a second time to replenish capital eroded by writedowns on subprime-infected assets.

``UBS has been blind,'' Dieter Winet, a senior portfolio manager who helps oversee 63 billion francs at Swisscanto Asset Management in Zurich, said before the release. ``We as UBS shareholders have to suffer this year.''

UBS has fallen 45 percent this year, cutting the market value of Switzerland's largest bank to 59.8 billion francs and making the stock the second-worst performer on the 60-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index.

The first-quarter writedown is greater than the $11 billion of losses estimated by analysts at Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer & Co. Before today, the world's biggest banks suffered losses on debt investments and loans of about $208 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

Merrill, Citigroup

Writedowns already cost the jobs of former CEO Peter Wuffli, finance chief Clive Standish and investment banking head Huw Jenkins. Ospel, who was supposed to stand for re-election at the shareholders meeting on April 23 for a shortened, one-year term, helped arrange the previous capital increase of 13 billion francs from investors in Singapore and the Middle East.

New York-based Citigroup and Merrill said in January they will receive $14.5 billion and $6.6 billion from investors respectively, after getting $7.5 billion and $5.6 billion cash infusions in November and December.

UBS reported a 12.5 billion-franc loss in the fourth quarter, the biggest ever by a bank, and Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner told reporters 2008 will be ``another difficult year.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Elena Logutenkova in Zurich at elogutenkova@bloomberg.net;

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