Rights trading for Credit Suisse shares started today and, as expected, the price headed lower. But the discount is significantly greater than anticipated.
On Friday, Credit Suisse shares closed at 3.318 francs ($3.5). Today, subscription rights trading started and the price was down significantly. During intraday trading shares traded at a low of 2.955 francs, a drop of almost 11 percent and a new all-time low.
Prices recovered somewhat to over 3 francs again to 3.072 francs, but are still down around 7.3 percent since the start of trading.
Two Shares for Seven Rights
That the share price will be reduced by the value of the subscription rights, traded separately on the SIX exchange starting today, was to be expected. However, while the rights issued 1 for 1 are currently valued at 0.156 Swiss francs, the share discount amounts to 0.259 Swiss francs.
In the course of the second capital increase, shareholders received one subscription right per share held. For seven of these rights, they can purchase two Credit Suisse shares for 2.52 francs. In purely operational terms, the capital increase is expected to net Credit Suisse around 4 billion francs of fresh capital and has gone off like clockwork, yet the share price itself is not finding any support.
