The Government of Singapore Investment Corp, one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds, said yesterday it would subscribe to UBS AG's rights issue.

A GIC spokeswoman declined to provide the value for the transaction, which comes as the Swiss bank seeks to lure investors to repair a balance sheet battered by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.

"We will subscribe fully to the new shares for our holdings in the UBS common stock," a GIC spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

The spokeswoman said GIC currently owns 0.4 per cent in UBS common stock. GIC controls 9.54 per cent of the voting rights in UBS. The fund invested 11 billion Swiss francs (Dh40bn) in mandatory convertible notes in UBS last December, after the bank's US housing crisis losses. In January, GIC invested $6.88bn in Citigroup.

Its sister fund Temasek Holdings pumped $5bn into Merrill Lynch.

GIC says on its website www.gic.com.sg that it manages well above $100bn but some analysts estimate the figure is closer to $300bn.

Morgan Stanley said in February that GIC was the world's third-largest state fund with $330bn in assets under management, behind the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority with $875bn and Norway's Government Pension Fund with $380bn. (Reuters)