The delicate financial situation of Credit Suisse worsens after its reference investor, the Saudi bank SNB, has ruled out going to a new capital increase because it already represents 10% of the Swiss bank’s shareholding. The announcement has caused the collapse of the Zurich-based entity on the stock market, which registered falls of more than 20% on Wednesday, and has dragged down the price of the main European banks.
Thus, the value of the share has been below two Swiss francs, deepening its all-time low and moving away from the 6.75 francs at which it traded a year ago. A sharp decline that has caused the trading of shares to be stopped on several occasions.
The president of SNB, Ammar Al Khudairy, has assured in an interview with Bloomberg TV that the bank is not willing to inject more money into the Swiss entity “for many reasons”, although the most important is that current regulations do not allow it. . Saudi bank SNB became Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder late last year after acquiring a 9.9% stake in the Swiss lender for 1.4 billion francs.
Credit Suisse is undergoing a complex restructuring plan to overcome its serious financial and reputational problems. A roadmap that could be cut short by investors’ fear of a new financial crisis in Europe resulting from the collapse of several regional banks in the United States.
The fear of a bankruptcy of the entity has caused a new fall in the prices of the main European banks, which last Monday already suffered heavy losses due to the intervention of Silicon Valley Bank in the United States and the fear that the crisis would end up reaching Europe. Société Générale decreased by 9.83%; BNP Paribas, 8.74%; and ING (Netherlands), 8.24%. The Germans Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, fell 7.96%, and 6.92%; while in the United Kingdom, Barclays lost 6.44%, and HSBC, 3.95%. The Italian Unicredit also lost 6.87%; and Intesa Sanpaolo, 5.94%. In Spain, BBVA and Santander fell 7.22% and 6.76%, respectively.
