Activist Investor RBR Details Credit Suisse Shake-Up Proposals
October 23 2017 - 4:04AM
Dow Jones News
By Alberto Delclaux
RBR Capital Advisors, the activist investor that last week
bought a stake in Credit Suisse (CSGN.EB), revealed late Friday its
plan for the Swiss bank, which includes a shake-up of its
conglomerate structure and IT platform.
The investment firm says Credit Suisse should focus on wealth
management and split off its investment banking and asset
management divisions into independent companies. Specifically, RBR
wants to merge and concentrate the Swiss Universal Bank, Wealth
Management International and Wealth Management Asia divisions into
a new structure whose value it says would exceed the current value
of the entire group.
RBR added that Credit Suisse's investment banking arm should not
only be split up but also domiciled outside Switzerland, such as in
the U.S. RBR also has plans to revamp the bank's "sub-par IT
platform" from scratch to better serve clients.
RBR announced last Tuesday it had bought a stake of between 0.2%
and 0.3% in Credit Suisse.
Responding to RBR's proposals, Credit Suisse said it welcomed
the views of all shareholders, but it was focusing on its existing
strategy and three-year plan, "which is well on track and which we
believe will unlock considerable value for our clients and
shareholders."
Rudolf Bohli, founder of RBR, said: "Our plan has the potential
to double Credit Suisse's share price within an 18-24 month period
time frame."
Write to Alberto Delclaux at alberto.delclaux@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 23, 2017 03:49 ET (07:49 GMT)
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