Switzerland’s financial regulator reportedly prevented a previous attempt by the Saudi National Bank to quadruple its stake in Credit Suisse.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) prevented the Saudi National Bank from increasing its stake in Credit Suisse from 9.88 percent to around 40 percent, according to a report by Swiss newspaper «Blick» citing unnamed sources.
The Saudi National Bank was already Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder and would have invested a further $5 billion. It was not clear why Finma opposed the deal, the report added.
UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for three billion Swiss francs ($3.4 billion) on March 19. After deal the Saudi National Bank’s stake in Credit Suisse converted to a 0.5 percent stake in UBS.
