The Artisan Partners Global Value Team and International Value Group today sent a letter to the board of directors of UBS Group AG.

We represent the Artisan Partners Global Value Team and the Artisan Partners International Value Group. Each of our teams initiated its investment position in UBS Group AG ("UBS") in 2015, and collectively investment accounts we manage on behalf of our discretionary investment management clients own more than 60 million UBS shares.

We have watched closely the debate in Switzerland regarding changes to UBS’ capital requirement. We had expected that cooler heads would ultimately prevail in this debate. But alas, it now appears that Switzerland will impose upon UBS excessive and unnecessary capital conditions. We will not relitigate the many flaws of the government’s proposals. They are self-evident to informed observers.