Swiss Credit Suisse lost more than a quarter of its market capitalization on Wednesday after its biggest investor, Saudi National Bank, refused to inject more money into the bank. Reuters.
“We can not [сделать этого]because our share would exceed 10%. This is a regulatory issue,” said Saudi bank chief Ammar Al-Khudayri, who now holds a 9.88% stake in Credit Suisse.
Against this backdrop, Credit Suisse shares fell 29% on Wednesday.
The head of the board of directors of the bank, Axel Lehmann, said that the institution maintains a strong balance sheet and will not need help from the state. He noted that it would be wrong to compare the problems of Credit Suisse with the situation in the US bank Silicon Valley Bank that went bankrupt last week, also because banks are regulated differently.
“We have strong capital adequacy ratios and a strong balance sheet,” Lehmann was quoted as saying by the agency. Bloomberg.
“We’ve already taken the cure,” he said, referring to the business reorganization plan released last October.
Credit Suisse CEO Ulrich Kerner urged investors to be patient and give the bank management the opportunity to implement a three-year plan that should return the institution to a profitable level.
- Credit Suisse has been plagued by scandals, lawsuits, leaks of insider information and client data, and resignations of top managers for several years now.
- The recent problems of Credit Suisse are connected, in particular, with large losses due to unsuccessful investments in the bankrupt fintech startup Greensill and the Archegos fund.
- The bank suffered record losses last year and was forced to announce a fundamental restructuring of its business portfolio that will put at least 9,000 employees out of work.
