ZURICH (AFP) - UBS does not need a new capital hike after Singapore helped plug a 10 billion dollar (6.8 billion euros) hole caused by the bank's exposure to the troubled US subprime home loan market, the bank's CEO Marcel Rohner said.

"Thanks to the 13 billion Swiss francs in new capital, and the replacement of a cash dividend by a share dividend, we have sufficiently firmed up our capital base," Rohner told the Swiss newspaper Handelszeitung in an interview to appear on Wednesday.

UBS in December turned to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and an unnamed Middle Eastern investor to help restore its balance sheet which had been badly hit by losses in the US mortgage crisis.

GIC said it would inject 11 billion Swiss francs into UBS, giving it a stake of around nine percent and thus making it the largest single shareholder, while the Middle Eastern investor was to put up two billion Swiss francs.

Rohner said it was vital that shareholders approve the deal and that any rejection would "seriously damage UBS."

Some shareholders have said they were unhappy with the plans to raise funds from foreign, state-controlled investment authorities, fearing the terms of the deal put existing investors at a disadvantage.

Asked about future possible share price falls, Rohner said it was impossible to give a definitive yes or no answer, but stressed that the bank had "substantially" cut its risk exposure.

He also rejected any hiving off of UBS's investment banking arm -- primarily responsible for its subprime exposure -- saying it "lies at the heart" of the bank's activities.

UBS warned in December that its subprime losses could lead it to end the full year 2007 in the red.

Investors took heart from Rohner's comments, with UBS shares up 3.57 percent at 49.94 Swiss francs in late trade on the Zurich stock exchange.