Rudolf Bohli, an activist hedge fund manager pushing for a breakup of Credit Suisse Group AG, said he is in talks with more than 150 potential investors with the goal of raising 1 billion Swiss francs (US$1.02 billion) for his campaign.
Bohli, whose firm, RBR Capital Advisors AG, currently manages about SF250 million, said that most of the potential backers he pitched on his idea are not Credit Suisse shareholders, adding that he was confident he could raise the funds in coming months based on those discussions, without providing details.
“There is a huge interest in this because the whole banking sector has not been disrupted really,” Bohli said in an interview. “A lot of the investors we talk to see this opportunity.”
Bohli, whose firm owns about 0.2 percent of the Swiss lender, is urging Credit Suisse to be split into three companies, arguing that such a move would double the bank’s current market value of about SF40 billion.
His plan has been dismissed by the company and its biggest shareholder, Harris Associates, which owns 9 percent of Credit Suisse.
Harris partner David Herro has said that while elements of the proposal should be looked at, Bohli’s valuations were “pie in the sky” and the investor has too little “skin in the game.”
“We are fully supportive of the Credit Suisse management and do not support RBR’s plan to split up” the bank, Herro said by e-mail.
Bohli in a Bloomberg TV interview on Friday said that his discussions with Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam had been “actually very friendly,” calling the CEO “a great guy.”
The investor said he believes Thiam will ultimately go along with his proposals.
Bohli, who on Friday presented his plan in public for the first time at the Robin Hood Investors Conference in New York, is hoping his strategy is attractive enough for investors to sign on to the idea.
He said that if shareholders, management and the board do not find merit in his plan, he would walk away.
“It’s not an ego trip,” Bohli said.
The Swiss lender two years ago started a restructuring led by Thiam, downsizing volatile trading operations and focusing more on managing money for the wealthy. A cornerstone of that strategy is to focus the investment bank more on the needs of the bank’s wealth management clients.
When asked about job cuts, Bohli said there would be some redundancies if his plan is implemented, but it would lead to more jobs in the long run, adding that Credit Suisse has too many traders.
ASML Holding NV and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have ways to disable the world’s most sophisticated chipmaking machines in the event that China invades Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. Officials from the US government have privately expressed concerns to both their Dutch and Taiwanese counterparts about what happens if Chinese aggression escalates into an attack on the nation responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors, two of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ASML reassured officials about its ability to remotely disable the machines when the Dutch government met with the company
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday held a ceremony to celebrate the arrival of the first equipment tools for phase 3 expansion at its Fab12i in Singapore. UMC, the second largest pure play wafer foundry operator in Taiwan, called the equipment move-in a new milestone for its production in Singapore with guests including representatives from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), Jurong Town Council (JTC), the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) as well as its construction partners, major equipment and material vendors. In February 2022, UMC announced plans to invest US$5 billion in the phase 3 expansion of its Fab12i, or Fab12i P3,
RETALIATION: Beijing is investigating Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan for dumping, following probes of its market, as well as tariff hikes on its imports The Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday said it had launched a dumping investigation into imports of an important engineering chemical from Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan. It would probe imports of polyoxymethylene copolymer, a thermoplastic used in many precision parts used in phones, auto parts and medical equipment, the Chinese commerce ministry said. The ministry is reviewing materials provided by six Chinese companies that applied for assistance on behalf of the industry on April 22, it said. The probe will target polyformaldehyde copolymer imported from suppliers in the EU, the US, Taiwan and Japan last year, and will assess any damage
RETALIATORY: The threat of levies comes as the EU is about to announce the results of its probe into China’s EV subsidies, which might result in it imposing its own tariffs China has signaled it is ready to unleash tariffs as high as 25 percent on imported vehicles with large engines, as trade tensions escalate with the US and EU. The China Chamber of Commerce to the EU said in a statement on X that it was informed about the potential move by “insiders.” The levies would affect European and US automakers and have a “significant” impact on relations with the EU, it said. Beijing is ramping up threats of retaliation as a deadline looms for the EU to announce the results of its probe into China’s electric vehicle (EV) subsidies. The bloc