Credit Suisse eyes possible IPO for new bank
Credit Suisse could be ready to press go on a massive stock market listing, after it moved more than 1m customers to a new bank which goes live today.
The new bank – Credit Suisse (Schweiz) – will cater for the lender's Swiss retail, corporate, private and investment banking clients and was set up as part of the corporate shake up under reasonably new chief executive Tidjane Thiam.
It is hoped the new bank could command a valuation of SFr20bn (£16bn) while Credit Suisse plans to raise between SFr2bn and SFr4bn by selling 20-30 per cent of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) for the IPO, which could make it the biggest flotation on the Swiss market since 2001.
The IPO is, market conditions depending, due to take place in the second half of 2017.
Read more: Credit Suisse comes to multi-million euro Italian settlement
"Setting up the legal entity is a pre-condition on the way to the IPO," Frank Schubert, project leader for the Swiss legal entity, is quoted by Reuters as saying.
Keen investors are likely to dig for more details when Credit Suisse hosts its investor date on 7 December.
Earlier this month, the Swiss bank delivered a surprised profit of SFr327m. Analysts had been expecting the lender to unveil a loss.