UPDATE 1-French bank Natixis to raise $6 billion in capital

(Recasts with Natixis plan to raise capital)

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

PARIS, July 16 (Reuters) - Natixis (CNAT.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), France's fourth-biggest listed bank, said on Wednesday it was launching a 3.7 billion euro ($5.9 billion) capital increase due to the credit crisis that has battered banks around the world.

The rights issue, details of which will be finalised at the time of Natixis' second-quarter results on Aug. 25, comes about a month after the bank previously tapped its controlling shareholders for about 1 billion euros in cash.

French mutual banks Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne together own about 70 percent of Natixis' share capital and the two have already come to its aid by injecting 2.5 billion euros of capital over the last year.

Natixis said Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne had committed to underwrite the latest capital increase, adding the two banks would ensure the price of the share issue would take into account the interests of "all shareholders."

Existing shareholders will get preferential treatment in the latest capital increase.

Natixis shares closed down 5.15 percent at 4.79 euros on Wednesday -- well below the 19.55 euros at which its shares were first listed on the Paris stock market in December 2006.

The stock has dropped around 64 percent since the start of 2008, underperforming a 40 percent fall in the DJ Stoxx European bank sector . Natixis has a current market capitalisation of around 6.1 billion euros.