Takeover rumor mill around Credit Suisse is running at full speed

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The Financial Times, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Blackrock was working on a bid for Credit Suisse. It would be a competitive bid for the potential takeover by UBS.

The Americans are looking at a number of options and are working with other investors, the British business newspaper reports. The world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock, could decide to bid only on parts of the deal and has notified Credit Suisse of its intention.

Bloomberg, in turn, later wrote that BlackRock was not targeting Credit Suisse or any part of it. The Swiss financial players, meanwhile, keep the rumors tight. Credit Suisse declined to comment on the rumors to AWP by phone Friday evening.

No comment

UBS, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Swiss financial market regulator (Finma) responded immediately on Saturday to a request from the Keystone-SDA news agency. “No comment,” it sounded from all sides. The FPS Finance “does not comment on rumors,” said a spokeswoman.

When asked by AWP late Friday night, a UBS spokesperson merely repeated the statement CEO Ralph Hamers made at a conference on Wednesday that UBS was focusing on its own strategy.

The Financial Times reported late Friday night that CS and UBS would be in takeover talks. A partial or full takeover is planned, the newspaper writes based on an unnamed source.

Local regulators told their US and UK counterparts on Friday night that a merger of the two banks is their “Plan A” to avoid a total loss of confidence in Credit Suisse. Bloomberg news agency reported Thursday that UBS and CS would reject a forced merger.

The crisis is likely to last longer

In any case, experts are looking critically at the future of the ailing Credit Suisse (CS). Forecasts range from problems lasting several months to the end of the ailing Swiss bank, according to interviews published Saturday.

François Savary, head of investments at Geneva-based asset manager Prime Partners, told Le Temps that the CS crisis was “probably going to last a few months”. However, it does not cause a system-threatening domino effect.

Weko would probably have reservations

Whether a merger of the two major banks would be possible at all was controversial. The former chairman of the financial market regulator Finma, Eugen Haltiner, said in an interview with the titles “CH Media” published on Saturday that the competition commission Weko would probably not be happy about that. “In the case of CS and UBS, ComCo would certainly have significant concerns because both institutions have dominant positions in the market.”

On Wednesday evening, the financial market regulator Finma and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced that they would make liquidity available to Credit Suisse if necessary. Just a few hours later, CS reported its needs and borrowed up to CHF 50 billion from the SNB to ensure liquidity.

The billions in aid failed to allay investors’ concerns about the ailing major bank. As CS’s share price fell again on Friday, speculation grew louder about a split of Switzerland’s second-largest financial institution.

(SDA/brother)

Source:Blick