The chairman of Credit Suisse has insisted that the bank is not for sale after the company announced a restructure last week.

Following quarterly losses of CHf4 billion, the bank said that it would cut its workforce by 9,000 by the end of 2025 while also shifting focus away from investment banking towards wealthy clientele.

Credit Suisse’s stock price has tumbled by more than half this year, but the company’s chair Axel Lehmann has told Bloomberg TV that it has no intention of selling.

He said: “We are going to thrive again, so we don’t have any takeover discussions. We want to stay independent.

“Going forward, Credit Suisse is really a wealth management-centric franchise, centred around entrepreneurs, wealthy clients. We are a wealth manager, and asset management goes alongside.”

As part of its revamp, Lehmann said that he is “Highly confident” that the bank will secure an agreement to sell the majority of a securitised-products trading business to a group led by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a move which would make it “rock solid.”

The bank also plans to raise CHf4 billion from investors, including the Saudi National Bank which will become one of its top shareholders.

When pushed on accepting investment from Saudi Arabia at a time of heightened scrutiny on the Kingdom’s human rights record, Lehmann said: “We are very happy that we have an investor like the Saudi National Bank. It’s a private institution, and I think this is also a region that is growing.”

Lehmann, who was hired in early 2022, has bought around US$1 million in shares following the capital increase announcement.

Share Story: