A customer walks to an automated teller machine (ATM) inside a bank branch of Credit Suisse Group AG in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, September 1, 2022.
Jose Cendon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Swiss banking giant UBS on Sunday offered to buy out its embattled rival Swiss credit up to $1 billion, according to the Financial Times, citing four people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The deal, which the FT said could be signed as early as Sunday evening, values Credit Suisse at around $7 billion below its market value at Friday’s close.
The FT said UBS had offered a price of 0.25 Swiss francs ($0.27) per share to be paid in UBS shares. Credit Suisse shares closed on Friday at 1.86 Swiss francs. The fast-paced nature of the negotiations means that the terms of any final agreement could be different from those reported.
Credit Suisse would balk at the offer, arguing it’s too low and would hurt shareholders and employees, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Credit Suisse declined to comment on the information when contacted by CNBC.
UBS’s offer comes after Credit Suisse shares posted their worst weekly decline since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, despite announcing that it would have access to a loan of up to 50 billion Swiss francs (54 billion dollars) from the Swiss central bank.
It had already battled a string of losses and scandals, and last week sentiment was rattled again with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the closure of Signature Bank in the US, sending stocks tumbling.
Credit Suisse’s size and potential impact on the global economy is far greater than that of US banks. The Swiss bank’s balance sheet is about twice as large as that of Lehman Brothers when it failed, at around 530 billion Swiss francs at the end of 2022. It is also much more globally interconnected, with multiple international subsidiaries, which makes the orderly management of Credit Suisse’s situation even more important.
Credit Suisse lost around 38% of its deposits in the fourth quarter of 2022 and revealed in its delayed annual report early last week that outflows had not yet reversed. It reported a net loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs for the year 2022 and expects another “substantial” loss in 2023.
The bank previously announced a massive strategic overhaul in a bid to address these chronic issues, with current CEO and Credit Suisse veteran Ulrich Koerner taking over in July.
This is a developing story. Please check for updates.
