The timing of Iqbal Khan’s arrival at UBS, the world’s biggest wealth manager, late last year could have been very unfortunate — the Covid-19 pandemic struck just three months after the high-flying Swiss private banker took up his new top job. Powering the increase was a 41 per cent gain in pre-tax profits to $1.2bn in the dominant global wealth management division, where Mr Khan was appointed co-head alongside UBS veteran Tom Naratil.
Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analyst Lauren Silberman maintained a Hold rating on Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) on Thursday, setting a price target of $21, which is approximately 11.64% above the present share price of $18.81.
(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG and others stuck with a pile of high-risk debt they’ve been unable sell can breathe easier after a rebound in the leveraged loan market.Loans in Europe have staged a record rally since the end of March. That’s lessening the pain for banks that agreed to provide debt for M&A deals before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. They’d had to record a loss in the value of those loans in their first quarter results as prices slumped.A combination of the rising market and hedges against their exposure could reduce the pressure to sell the debt to third-party investors. Bank executives acknowledge that the continuing volatility in markets means they are not out of the woods yet. But in comparison with their position during the financial crisis, banks are now better capitalized and have a fraction of the exposure.“I think the risk of levered loan markets that we may have seen about a month ago has definitely subsided and we feel very comfortable with the book that we have,” Barclays’ Chief Executive Office Jes Staley said on an investor call last week.Barclays reported a 320 million-pound ($398 million) mark-to-market loss on leveraged loans in the first quarter, partly offset by a 275 million-pound gain from hedges.Credit Suisse recorded a first-quarter $293 million markdown from its leveraged loan exposure. UBS marked down $183 million across three divisions including leveraged capital markets, which it said was fully offset by hedging gains.Deutsche Bank, which is arranging some of the same deals and had 4.1 billion euros of leveraged loan commitments at end-March, said hedging almost entirely offset its markdown. More European banks are releasing earnings this week.Spokespeople for Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and UBS declined to comment for this article. Barclays did not respond to a request for comment.Waiting GameBut while banks can take comfort from the rebound and the protection of their hedges, they could still face a long delay in selling their debt stock.They’re waiting to offload more than $13 billion to investors in Europe, including part of the 10.25 billion-euro funding for Thyssenkrupp AG’s elevators unit. Some European underwriters are also sitting on deals destined for the U.S. market.Read more: Banks Have $13 Billion to Shift on High-Yield Market’s ReturnLoan and bond issuance is starting to revive in Europe but so far chiefly for stronger companies willing to pay up. The M&A deals structured in the bullish pre-Covid conditions are unlikely to suit lenders’ current needs in terms of pricing and terms.Banks waiting to shift unsold deals also run the risk of another surge in volatility, or a deterioration in the credit quality on their books.Some of the companies they’re exposed to have been downgraded due to the virus’s impact, and may need additional liquidity. Boels Holdings BV, which has an 1.61 billion-euro loan held by Credit Suisse and four other banks, has drawn most of its revolving credit in full.Barclays’ Group Finance Director, Tushar Morzaria, noted on April 29 that the bank’s markdowns and hedges “are likely to be volatile over the coming quarters”, while Credit Suisse’s Chief Financial Officer David Mathers said on April 23 it was “a little bit dangerous to make forward-looking comments” in relation to the bank’s loan exposure.Even so, where banks are confident in the longer-term outlook for the borrowers they’re exposed to, the rally should make the wait more comfortable.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Credit Suisse AG ("Credit Suisse") announced today that it has exercised its right to call its Credit Suisse X-Links® Multi-Asset High Income ETNs ("MLTI" or the "ETNs").
(Bloomberg) -- Before the accounting scandal and the stock crash and the defaulted loans, Luckin Coffee Ltd.’s billionaire founder Lu Zhengyao was an ideal customer for Credit Suisse Group AG.“I’ve had I don’t know how many dinners with him in Beijing and he’s absolutely the poster child for what we want to do,” Tidjane Thiam said at a conference last year when he was still head of the bank. He lauded Lu’s relationship with the firm that ranged from private banking to stock sales. “He’s a dream client.”Luckin’s dramatic fall from grace this month blindsided some of the top names in global finance but few have seen a bigger fallout than Credit Suisse. The lender lost a high-profile Hong Kong IPO in the wake of the scandal and reported a five-fold increase in loan-loss provisions at its Asia Pacific unit, primarily due to a default by Lu. The bank is conducting an internal review of the case, and scrutiny on loans to Chinese companies has increased, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified discussing private matters.While Lu hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, Luckin’s revelation that senior executives may have fabricated $310 million in sales underscores the risk for investment banks of doing deals in China, following a series of accounting scandals. The world’s second-biggest economy is core to Credit Suisse’s strategy to win business from rich entrepreneurs across Asia.“Luckin is a microcosm of what can happen when weak underwriting standards are allowed to persist in the pursuit of rapid growth,” said Mark Williams, a professor at Boston University and a former U.S. Federal Reserve bank examiner. “Luckin exhibited many signs of a high-growth, high-risk business.”A Credit Suisse spokeswoman in Hong Kong declined to comment on the story, nor elaborate on the remarks by Thiam.No ShiftChief Executive Officer Thomas Gottstein, who took over from Thiam in February, declined to comment on Luckin in a Bloomberg Television interview last week. The lender was still at the beginning of investigations involving auditors and lawyers, he said. “Too many parties involved to make an early conclusion.”Gottstein signaled the Luckin stock collapse won’t prompt a strategic shift, and the bank will continue to target wealthy entrepreneurs in China.“It’s a strategy that our firm believes in because it combines our strength in private banking and investment banking and we have had so many successes all over the world,” he said.Close AssociationCredit Suisse wasn’t the only firm caught out by the scandal at Luckin, whose offices were raided this week by Chinese regulators. Luckin’s early investors included global giants such as GIC Pte., the Singapore sovereign wealth fund. Morgan Stanley was part of the IPO group and provided some of the margin loans to Lu, as did Barclays Plc, among others. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and the other IPO banks face an investor lawsuit after Luckin’s 91% collapse from its January high. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating Luckin, Dow Jones reported.Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and GIC declined to comment.Yet, Credit Suisse had the closest ties. It was the lead underwriter for Luckin’s initial public offering last year in New York and the secondary sale in January, garnering 60% of the banking fees. That amounted to about $30 million for two deals that raised more than $1.2 billion for the coffee chain and a shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.The bank also led a $460 million convertible bond sale in January and is on the hook for a portion of the $518 million in margin loans to Lu that are now in default. The firm has been working with the founder since taking his car rental company public six years ago.Aside from the deals, the bank has other connections to the retailer. Luckin Chief Financial Officer Reinout Hendrik Schakel worked for eight years as an analyst and investment banker for Credit Suisse in Hong Kong until 2016. And Lu’s daughter Nancy works for Credit Suisse in Hong Kong in a role unrelated to the Luckin account, according to people familiar. She didn’t respond to phone calls and text messages, while the bank declined to comment.Given those links, Luckin’s downfall has hit Credit Suisse harder than others. Due to the scandal, the firm was dropped from a $500 million IPO in Hong Kong for WeDoctor, the health-care startup backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., according to people familiar. The bank has also increased scrutiny on Chinese loans in the wake of the collapse and the pandemic, people familiar said. It ended talks on joining a $1.5 billion loan to Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd., a U.S.-listed Macau casino operator hit hard by virus, they said. A spokeswoman at Melco declined to comment.Thiam identified Asia as a key growth driver when he was appointed CEO in 2015. The region was carved out from Europe, giving local managers more clout over lending and capital. The move fit the global shift away from investment banking to wealth management, particularly in China, which crowns a new billionaire every three days. While multi-billionaires are well served in the U.S. and Europe, the market in Asia is just getting started.Thiam couldn’t be reached for comment.Credit Suisse Presentation: Goldman Sachs European Financial ConferenceAfter years of reorganization and cost reductions, mostly in the markets division, the bank is starting to see the results of its shift. Private banking revenue rose 36% in Asia in the first quarter, while advisory, underwriting and financing revenue tumbled 78%. Pretax income in the region jumped 38% to 252 million Swiss francs ($258 million), as bank-wide profit beat estimates.Banker TurnoverThe wealth focus has come at the expense of the investment-banking team. Several senior bankers in Asia have left in recent years, including Mervyn Chow, who was at the bank for two decades, and Isabella Luan, a technology banker.Credit Suisse has seen more turnover at its China team than some of its biggest competitors, going through four Greater China CEOs in recent years. By contrast, the China heads at UBS Group AG and Morgan Stanley have spent more than two decades at their firms.Rivals such as UBS and Goldman Sachs have about twice the staff in China as Credit Suisse, while universal banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup have broader corporate banking and treasury operations.Helman Sitohang, who runs the Asia Pacific division at Credit Suisse, said his competitors may have “bigger muscles and balance sheets,” yet the focus on the 1,000 billionaires across Asia is paying off. “We don’t want to be the biggest,” he said at an investor day in December. “We want to be the most profitable.”Model ClientSitohang lauded Lu as one of the bank’s success stories. Lu started Car Inc. in 2007 and built it into China’s biggest rental company. Credit Suisse was there from the beginning, taking it public in Hong Kong in 2014, along with Morgan Stanley, and leading three U.S. bond sales totaling almost $1.2 billion.Lu then set out to take on Starbucks Corp. in China, expanding Luckin to 4,500 stores in just two years. For a while it became a darling of U.S. investors, with the stock tripling in its first eight months of trading.While the Luckin board said it’s focusing its probe on Chief Operating Officer Jian Liu, Lu said the company went too far too fast, going public after just 18 months in business. Liu couldn’t be reached for comment, nor could company officials.“I’ve been blaming myself,” Lu told the National Business Daily in China, referring to the rapid growth that created “a lot of problems” for the company.The stock remains halted on the Nasdaq pending the review, with the last trade at $4.39 on April 6, down from a January high of $51.38. The company’s convertible bonds meanwhile trade at just 24 cents on the dollar, a clear signal of distress.In the end, Credit Suisse will move on from Luckin, even if it results in short-term losses, said Ismail Ertürk, senior lecturer in banking at Alliance Manchester Business School in the U.K. The lender will chalk it up as the “cost of doing business.”(Updates with report of SEC probe in 10th paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analyst John Walsh maintained a Hold rating on Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR) on Wednesday, setting a price target of $30, which is approximately 3.13% above the present share price of $29.09.
The banks that lent $518 million to Luckin Coffee
By Yasin Ebrahim
Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analyst Brad Zelnick maintained a Hold rating on Medallia (NYSE:MDLA) Inc on Wednesday, setting a price target of $22, which is approximately 10.82% below the present share price of $24.67.
Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has assigned provisional ratings to two classes of notes issued by Mortgage Repurchase Agreement Financing Trust Notes, Series 2020-2 ("MRAFT 2020-2"). Mortgage Repurchase Agreement Financing Trust (Issuer), has issued its ninth series (MRAFT 2020-2) backed by a revolving warehouse facility with an expected repayment date of November 29, 2020. In addition, the Buyer's Administrator (Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Capital LLC) will also have the right to alter the capital structure of the Issuer in order to divide a series of notes into one or more classes or categories ("Rebalancing").
(Bloomberg) -- Lenders led by Credit Suisse Group AG have targeted the family assets of Luckin Coffee Inc. Chairman Lu Zhengyao as they try to recoup losses on more than $500 million in soured margin loans.Credit Suisse is seeking a court order to appoint liquidators for Haode Investment Inc., according to a notice in the BVI Gazette on Thursday. Haode, controlled by Lu’s family trust, defaulted on loans backed by Luckin shares in April, according to a statement from lenders last month. Spokespeople for Credit Suisse and Luckin declined to comment.The liquidation request adds to a long list of challenges facing Lu, who became a billionaire after his fast-growing Chinese coffee chain went public in the U.S. with help from some of the biggest names on Wall Street. Much of Lu’s wealth has been wiped out by a 92% plunge in Luckin’s stock since April, when the company disclosed that some of its employees may have fabricated billions of yuan in sales.Luckin’s fall from grace has made it a poster child for concerns about Chinese corporate governance, fueling a debate in Washington over the extent to which U.S. money and capital markets should be made accessible to firms from a growing geopolitical rival. Nasdaq Inc. plans to delist Luckin’s stock, while the U.S. Senate approved legislation Wednesday that could lead to some Chinese companies being barred from American exchanges.Lu said in a statement on Wednesday that he’s “deeply disappointed” Nasdaq is moving to delist Luckin before the company releases final results of an internal probe into its accounting. Regulators in the U.S. and China are also investigating the coffee chain, while Luckin bondholders have secured a freeze on $160.7 million in assets, according to a May 11 filing in Hong Kong.Banks that participated in the loan facility to Lu’s investment vehicle signaled in April that they plan to sell Luckin shares that were pledged as collateral. It’s unclear whether the banks have started offloading the shares or how much money they’ll be able to recoup.Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley each put up about $100 million as part of the loan facility, while China’s Haitong International Securities Group lent about $140 million, Bloomberg reported last month, citing a person familiar with the matter. Other banks involved include Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and China International Capital Corp.Lu’s investment vehicle has disputed that it’s in default and has requested an injunction against Credit Suisse in Hong Kong to prevent the bank from commencing liquidation proceedings, according to a May 6 court filing.Few banks have seen a bigger fallout from the Luckin saga than Credit Suisse, which was the lead underwriter for Luckin’s initial public offering, a secondary share sale in January and a $460 million issuance of convertible bonds.The bank lost a high-profile Hong Kong IPO in the wake of the scandal and reported a five-fold increase in loan-loss provisions at its Asia Pacific unit, primarily due to the Luckin margin loans. The bank is conducting a review of the case, and scrutiny on loans to Chinese companies has increased, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be named discussing private matters. China is core to Credit Suisse’s strategy to win business from rich entrepreneurs across Asia.The Swiss bank, which is acting as an agent for the loan facility, filed the liquidation request to the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, High Court of Justice, in the British Virgin Islands on April 23, according to the BVI Gazette notice. A hearing is schedule for June 8.(Adds Luckin and bondholders lawsuits.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG is doubling down on an oil trade linked to a fund at the epicenter of the historic price crash.The Swiss bank is cashing in on the infamy of the U.S. Oil Fund LP, known as USO. It’s issuing fresh shares in a note that lets clients bet the $4 billion product will see calmer days after its 80% plunge this year.Using what’s known as a covered-call strategy, the X-Links Crude Oil Shares Covered Call exchange-traded note, ticker USOI, is structured to outperform if USO stays locked in sideways trading. A prospectus published last week showed the bank is adding 2.2 million shares, worth $54 million at their stated principal amount. The note’s indicative value on that date was around $4 a share, which would make the offering worth around $9 million.The world’s largest oil ETF captured headlines last month after retail investors got burned with ill-timed bets on a crude rebound. Amid negative prices, USO was forced to re-tool its methodology and took other extraordinary steps to prevent shuttering.Now as the dust settles, Credit Suisse reckons it can tap fresh demand for traders seeking steady income from investing in oil futures.Despite this week’s bounce in crude prices, oil looks stuck in a quagmire of weak demand and oversupply. Meanwhile USO’s issuer has upended how it tracks the commodity -- potentially capping both its gains when front-month oil futures rise and price swings going forward.All of that looks set to boost the Credit Suisse strategy.“USO implied volatility is obviously quite high, for good reason,” said Benn Eifert, chief investment officer at QVR Advisors. “But USO methodology changes have stabilized it somewhat, reduced left tail risk and reduced the volatility it should experience.”Income HuntThe Credit Suisse product holds shares of USO while simultaneously writing call options. The premium generated from selling those contracts is designed to provide a steady income. Since its 2017 inception, it’s outperformed its bigger sibling by around 17% on a total return basis.The strategy isn’t without its risks. Like all covered-call products, it will underperform if USO goes on a tear. Also, if implied volatility of the ETF drops, it will earn less premium from selling the options contracts, hitting its dividend.A spokesman for Credit Suisse declined to comment.As investor interest in USO drops off in the wake of the tumult, the Swiss bank may be betting that investors will flock to its note as a viable alternative. Recent data from online trading platform Robinhood shows a drop in customers holding the beleaguered fund.“The retail interest in USO has finally started to fade,” said Ole Hansen of Saxo Bank.(Updates with details on indicative value of offering.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Swiss regulators have requested electronic messaging data from the mobile phones of several Credit Suisse managers and supervisory board directors as part of a probe into spying at the bank, three people familiar with the matter said. Switzerland's markets watchdog FINMA is examining the culture and governance at one of Europe's largest banks and whether management control failures allowed spying on former executive board members Iqbal Khan and Peter Goerke, the sources told Reuters. The sources did not identify which managers and board directors FINMA was seeking the mobile phone data for.
Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Credit Suisse Group AG and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion. This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future.
(Bloomberg) -- UBS Group AG is offering some of its wealthiest clients in Switzerland a temporary break from negative interest rates in a bid to attract assets as the coronavirus crisis wreaks havoc on markets.The world’s largest wealth manager is offering a payment holiday of several months to clients that plan to eventually invest some of their cash holdings, according to people familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity to discuss internal information.A spokesman for UBS declined to comment.UBS last year led the way in passing on negative rates to rich clients, but the policy has led to outflows -- $16 billion were pulled in the first quarter to avoid charges -- and is making it harder to attract new money in the current crisis. While investors typically prefer the stability of the Swiss franc in times of turmoil, many are holding more cash and don’t want to be forced to make investment decisions as long as the volatility persists.In addition, the pandemic is reshaping how banks look at deposits, given the surge in demand for credit from companies hit by widescale lockdowns to combat the virus. Credit Suisse Group AG turned to its own ultra-high-net-worth clients to bolster its ability to lend as markets sank in March and companies started drawing down credit lines to weather the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg has reported.UBS is discussing the payment holiday on a case-by-case basis, the people said, and the bank plans to recoup lost interest by boosting lending. Swiss lenders have gotten some relief from negative interest rates recently when the country’s central bank increased the amount they can deposit there without being charged.Despite outflows from clients seeking to avoid negative interest rates in Europe, UBS still posted a net $12 billion of inflows across its global wealth management unit in the first quarter.Spreading the PainWhile UBS is offering some flexibility to its richest clients in Switzerland, it has continued a push to pass on the cost of negative rates to a broader client base. Last month it started charging clients in Germany for deposits of as little as 500,000 euros. The threshold was previously at 1 million euros.Credit Suisse is also considering sharing that burden with a broader group of clients over the course of this year, according one person familiar with the matter. It currently charges negative interest rates on deposits above 2 million francs and 1 million euros. A spokesman for the bank said there are no changes at this point but Credit Suisse was closely monitoring market developments.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analyst Curt Woodworth maintained a Hold rating on Turquoise Hill Resources (NYSE:TRQ) Ltd on Wednesday, setting a price target of C$0.9, which is approximately 67.60% above the present share price of $0.54.
Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analyst Erin Wright maintained a Hold rating on Covetrus (NASDAQ:CVET) Inc on Thursday, setting a price target of $10, which is approximately 17.90% below the present share price of $12.18.
Companies say that a return to workspaces will be slow and that they need to be sensitive to employees’ needs and concerns.
On May 1, 2020, Credit Suisse declared coupon payments for the following ETNs:
Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has assigned definitive ratings to two classes of notes issued by Mortgage Repurchase Agreement Financing Trust, Series 2020-1 ("MRAFT 2020-1"). Mortgage Repurchase Agreement Financing Trust (Issuer), has issued its eight series (MRAFT 2020-1) backed by a revolving warehouse facility with an expected repayment date of April 30, 2021. In addition, the Buyer's Administrator (Credit Suisse) will also have the right to alter the capital structure of the Issuer in order to divide a series of notes into one or more classes or categories ("Rebalancing").