Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam won't keep talking with an activist shareholder trying to break apart Swiss bank. The reticence is a sign of his sanguinity that the plan won't succeed.
Zurich-based Credit Suisse is in the crosshairs of a small Swiss hedge fund, RBR. Run by former broker Rudolf Bohli, RBR wants to wrench apart Credit Suisse to gain what it believes is more value from three separate, distinctive parts: private banking, asset management, and investment banking.
Earlier this month, Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam was sanguine about the threat in his first outing in front of media since the offensive, as finews.asia reported. Now, the CEO is showing the hedge fund the cold shoulder.
Shareholder Support
Thiam won't meet Bohli again after an initial get-together, he told finance portal «Financial News» (behind paywall) on Friday: «We have put out a statement on this that we welcome the view of all of our shareholders. The meeting was cordial. I am not worried.»
The CEO has little reason to be: he has the backing of his biggest shareholder, Chicago, IL-based Harris Associates, which criticizes the hedge fund for «faulty» thinking and for what it believes if the practical difficulty of splitting up a behemoth bank.
Thiam's immediate focus is on an investor event next Friday. The bank, two-thirds of the way through a restructuring, is expected to illustrate its progress towards three-year targets to illustrate why it should be kept together.
