UBS foresees $35 billion gain from Credit Suisse deal but not without some costs

The state-brokered bailout of Credit Suisse, according to UBS, is expected to result in an accounting gain of $35 billion, which is less than some had anticipated. Separately, the bank also reported $17 billion in asset writedowns and litigation provisions, as per a report by Financial Times.

The Swiss lender provided its initial financial impact estimates for the merger, the largest bank deal since the financial crisis, for the first time in a US regulatory filing on Wednesday. The merger is estimated to take up to four years to complete due to its complexity.

Because it acquired its rival for a small portion of the book value of its assets, UBS claimed that it should record a $34.8 billion accounting gain on the acquisition. The $3.5 billion acquisition price is subtracted from the approximately $38 billion fair value of the net assets to arrive at the so-called "negative goodwill" amount.

Due to a number of reasons, including changes in the fair market value of assets, pension liabilities, and adjustments made because the two lenders used different accounting rules, this is less than the hypothetical $57 billion in profit it could have achieved.

Nevertheless, UBS will receive a paper profit from the negative goodwill, which it can use to offset the deal's multiple losses and integration expenses. Regulator Finma and the Swiss government controversially allowed the bank to write off $17.1 billion of new tier one bonds, which are convertible debt securities that have sparked litigation from investors.

According to the document, UBS will write down $13 billion of Credit Suisse's assets, reserve $4 billion for legal and regulatory expenses, and indicate that there will be an additional restructuring charge once the deal closes, as reported by Financial Times.