Following his comments that led to a massive sell-off in Credit Suisse stocks, the Chairman of its largest shareholder has resigned.
On March 15, Ammar Al Khudairy, the Chairman of the Saudi National Bank (SNB) and the largest shareholder of Credit Suisse said the SNB would not expand its stake beyond the nearly ten percent it already owned. The remarks triggered a massive selloff in Credit Suisse stocks.
That wiped out around one billion dollars of value of the Saudi National Bank's position, after it took the expanded stake in Credit Suisse for 1.4 billion Swiss francs last year, according to the report.
At the time Al Khudairy was making positive comments on the restructuring of Credit Suisse and that it would not need a further infusion of capital. Moreover, «We cannot because we would go above ten percent. It’s a regulatory issue,» he said. But with financial markets jittery over the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and fearing a wider banking crisis, his comments sent Credit Suisse shares plunging.
Resigning for Personal Reasons
He has now resigned «due to personal reasons» and will be replaced by CEO Saeed Mohammed Al Ghamdi, according to a «Bloomberg» (behind paywall) report Monday. Deputy CEO Talal Ahmed Al Khereiji becomes the acting CEO.
Al Khudairy's statements in mid-March were not new. As early as November, he made it clear the SNB stake in Credit Suisse was a purely financial investment and was not seeking further influence on the bank, by increasing the stake, and a seat on the board of directors was not being sought.
On March 25, Credit Suisse was taken over by rival UBS in a forced transaction brokered by the Swiss government and included the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma). UBS paid 76 centimes a share for Credit Suisse.
