Credit Suisse Group AG announces the results of the rights offering as approved by the shareholders at the Extraordinary General Meeting on November 23, 2022. By the end of the rights exercise period on December 8, 2022, 12:00 noon CET, 98.2% of the rights had been exercised for the issuance of 872,989,594 new shares. The 16,378,864 newly issued shares for which rights were not exercised are planned to be sold in the market at or above the offer price of CHF 2.52 per share. The gross proceeds of the rights offering for Credit Suisse Group AG are expected to amount to approximately CHF 2.24 billion.

Ulrich Körner, Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse, said: “Over recent weeks we have made important strides towards implementing the strategic actions outlined at our October 27 strategic review. The successful completion of the capital increase is a key milestone for the new Credit Suisse. It will allow us to further support our strategic priorities from a position of capital strength and create a simpler, more stable and more focused bank built around client needs, and generating value for shareholders.”

In the context of the rights offering, existing shareholders of Credit Suisse Group AG were offered 889,368,458 newly issued shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.04 each. Shareholders of Credit Suisse Group AG were allotted one pre-emptive subscription right for each share they held on November 25, 2022 (after close of trading). Seven pre-emptive subscription rights entitled the holder of such rights – subject to certain restrictions under applicable local laws – to purchase two newly issued shares at the offer price of CHF 2.52 per share.

By the end of the rights exercise period on December 8, 2022, 12:00 noon CET, pre-emptive subscription rights for 872,989,594 newly issued shares had been validly exercised, which corresponds to 98.2% of the newly issued shares offered. The 16,378,864 newly issued shares for which rights were not exercised are planned to be sold in the market at or above the offer price of CHF 2.52 per share.

The gross proceeds of the rights offering for Credit Suisse Group AG are expected to amount to approximately CHF 2.24 billion. As a result of the rights offering, the number of issued shares of Credit Suisse Group AG increases to 4,002,158,062. The nominal share capital of Credit Suisse Group AG rises by CHF 35,574,738.32 from CHF 124,511,584.16 to CHF 160,086,322.48 as a result of the rights offering.

The gross proceeds for Credit Suisse Group AG of the rights offering and the previously implemented capital increase by way of share placement together are expected to amount to a total of approximately CHF 4.0 billion.

The listing and the first day of trading on SIX Swiss Exchange of the newly issued shares from the rights offering, as well as the delivery of the new shares against payment of the offer price, are expected to take place on December 9, 2022.

Credit Suisse AG is acting as Global Coordinator for the rights offering. Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets and Société Générale are acting as Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners. ABN AMRO in cooperation with ODDO BHF SCA, Banco Santander, Barclays, BofA Securities, BNP PARIBAS, Citigroup, COMMERZBANK, Crédit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs International, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods – A Stifel Company, Mediobanca, SMBC Nikko and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as Joint Bookrunners.

Since October 27, 2022, Credit Suisse has continued to progress on its strategic actions. In addition to the successful completion of its capital raise, which is expected to strengthen Credit Suisse Group AG’s CET1 ratio by approximately 140 basis points, the bank continues to make progress in relation to the definitive transaction agreements to sell a significant part of the Securitized Products Group and other related financing businesses to entities and funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Capital Management. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023 and is expected to further bolster Credit Suisse Group AG’s CET1 capital ratio.

As announced on December 5, 2022, Credit Suisse Group AG has also completed HoldCo and AT1 issuances for 2022 including approximately USD equivalent of 5 billion of HoldCo debt issued since the Strategy Update on October 27, 2022. Together with the capital raise, progress on our Securitized Products transaction and other measures have further strengthened Credit Suisse Group AG’s spot liquidity coverage ratio (LCR), with the average daily LCR for the fourth quarter-to-date, as of December 7, 2022, above 140%.

The bank’s cost transformation remains well under way. The cost actions already initiated by Credit Suisse as of December 8, 2022, are expected to represent ~80% of the 2023 cost base reduction target of approximately CHF 1.2 billion.

Source: Credit Suisse