Credit Suisse Group AG is evaluating all its options before it announces a new strategy on Oct. 21, the bank said, amid growing speculation that it plans to sell shares to raise capital.
The bank’s shares fell 3.6 percent in Zurich trading on Thursday after the Financial Times reported it was preparing a “substantial” equity issue.
Switzerland’s second-largest bank would use the fresh funds to absorb losses caused by a planned reorganization, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
“We have noted today’s media speculation regarding our capital position and our Oct. 21, 2015 investor day,” the bank said after the market closed.
“We are conducting a thorough assessment of Credit Suisse’s strategy, evaluating all options for the group, its businesses and its capital usage and requirements,” it said.
The people cited by the British newspaper pointed to a survey of investors by Goldman Sachs Group Inc analysts where 91 percent of respondents expected the bank to raise at least 5 billion Swiss francs (US$5.2 billion).
Credit Suisse chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam, who replaced Brady Dougan in July, is under pressure to make deeper cuts to its investment bank and allocate more resources to wealth management. Thiam, 53, who joined from Prudential PLC, has pledged to set out a strategy to make the business “generate excess capital.”
Swiss capital requirements are among the toughest in the world, with the government looking to raise the leverage ratio showing how much capital a bank holds in the form of debt.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day