His election to the board of Credit Suisse may have gone by almost unnoticed in Switzerland. But Michael Klein’s business interests ranging from oil-rich Saudi Arabia to the U.S. philanthropists no doubt are top-notch.
The man has never granted an interview. Those who agree to talk about him prefer to do so on the condition of anonymity. Too big is their concern of upsetting Michael Klein (pictured below) – and to be left out of the next of his many big deals.
Big deals is what Klein is all about, and he has proven as much recently. The U.S. investment banker is one of the brains behind the biggest IPO ever: the $25.6 billion partial listing of oil producer Saudi-Aramco. For sure, since its IPO in early December, the stock has declined some 7 percent – and the killing of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani and the implications this will have for the whole of the Middle East may yet do more harm.
Matchmaker for Commodity Giants
It comes as just another fly in the ointment for Credit Suisse, which was one of the co-lead managers in an IPO that didn’t quite go as planned. Klein, who sits on the board of the Swiss bank, will likely have plenty on his hands as the situation in the region deteriorates.
The former Citigroup banker and owner of a consultancy firm – M. Klein & Company based in New York – was elected to the board of Switzerland’s second-largest bank in April 2018, an election that was hardly noticed by anybody in Switzerland.
At most, observer may have asked themselves what an investment banker with his high-profile network of contacts in the commodities industry would bring to the board of the bank. Klein, for instance, was instrumental in organizing talks that preceded the merger between Glencore and Xstrata. After all, Credit Suisse is focusing mainly on its wealth management and on sustainability.
Advising the State Fund
With hindsight, the timing was spot on. The race to get a piece of the Aramco-IPO deal was already on and Klein evidently had firm relations to the highest places in the kingdom. Reports in the media suggest that he helped to restructure the oil firm in the run-up to the IPO. The 55-year-old American banker is an important adviser to the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Saudi state fund. He already had advised PIF during the takeover of petrochemicals firm Sabic by Aramco.
PIF plays a key factor in Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempts to move Saudi Arabia away from its oil dependence to becoming something of a high-tech hub.
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