UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, said its decision to sell stock was to take advantage of a window of opportunity that should allow it to raise about 3.8 billion Swiss francs ($3.46 billion).

The share placement is not related to any specific events, a UBS spokesman said.

UBS is taking this action now in order to take advantage of current market opportunities, he said.

The Swiss bank, one of the world's hardest-hit major banks in the global financial crisis, said on Thursday it was offering about 293.3 million new shares at a price of 13.00 Swiss francs per share, a 6.9 percent discount to Thursday's closing price of 13.97. It also said it would post a second-quarter net loss.

(Reporting by Jason Rhodes; Editing by Hans Peters)

($1=1.099 Swiss Franc)

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