Credit Suisse shares get closer to offer price in $2.4 billion cash call

MILAN (Reuters) – Credit Suisse shares fell to a fresh record low on Thursday approaching the offer price of the 2.24 billion Swiss francs ($2.37 billion) rights issue the loss-making bank needs to help stabilise its finances.

By 1019 GMT, Credit Suisse shares fell to as low as 2.667 francs, which is around 5% above the 2.52 francs offer price in the rights issue.

Rights to subscribe to the capital increase fell as much as 51% on the day.

“The share price is… above the offer price of CHF 2.52 for their CHF 2.2bn rights offering, which is also the ‘hard underwriting’ price for the consortium of 19 banks. If CSG were to keep trading above CHF 2.52 till the last day of rights trading on Dec 6, 2022, we can assume at that point the capital raise was most likely a success,” JP Morgan said.

The rights issue, which is part of a broader capital raise worth $4 billion francs, is guaranteed by a group of banks.

($1 = 0.9438 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, editing by Alun John)