Deals
Credit Suisse Plans for Swiss Unit Seen Too Ambitious by Rivals
- Swiss universal bank earmarked for partial IPO in 2017
- Unit’s head Gottstein remains “very optimistic’ on targets
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Credit Suisse Group AG’s profitability targets for the Swiss unit, earmarked for a partial initial public offering in 2017, may be too ambitious, according to the heads of some of Switzerland’s largest consumer banks.
The chief executive officers of Valiant Holding AG, Zuercher Kantonalbank, Raiffeisen Switzerland and Postfinance AG signaled skepticism about Credit Suisse’s ability to reach its profitability goals at the so-called Swiss Universal Bank that was carved out as part of CEO Tidjane Thiam’s wider overhaul last year. The Zurich-based bank targets a pretax profit of 2.3 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion) by 2018 at the unit, up from 1.7 billion francs in 2015.