LONDON, Feb 9 - UBS will pay about 2.9 billion Swiss francs ($2.7 billion) in cash bonuses for 2009, up about a third from depressed payouts a year earlier, the Swiss bank said on Tuesday.

UBS said the variable compensation payment did not include deferred share awards and was up 34 percent from 2008, when the bank made a record loss.

It will also be shared by fewer staff.

UBS returned to a fourth-quarter profit of 1.2 billion francs, its first quarterly net profit since Oswald Gruebel took the helm a year ago.

Personnel expenses for 2009 totalled 16.5 billion francs, up 2 percent from 2008.

The bank had 65,233 employees at the end of the year, down 16 percent from a year earlier, as Gruebel pushes through an aggressive plan to revive its fortunes after the credit crisis and a bitter U.S. tax row.

UBS declined to say how much it would give staff in shares.

Many banks have said they will raise fixed salaries and pay a higher proportion of bonuses in stock and defer more over several years.

The Swiss bank overhauled its compensation structure at the end of 2008 and told staff in October it would further reform its pay by hiking fixed salaries and matching bonuses to sustainable performance, but wouldn't implement the changes until key units returned to profit, according to an internal memo.