Credit Suisse Valuation Drops Below Crocs Amid Financial Turmoil

With its market valuation now below that of Crocs, a company that makes rubber clogs, Credit Suisse would be positioned between Admiral and Kingfisher in the FTSE 100.

By market capitalization, Credit Suisse was formerly the eighth-largest publicly held bank in the world in 2007. Now, it is ranked 155th. Despite this, the bank is still well-known in the financial world, having $574 billion in total assets as of the end of 2022. The additional US$1.7 trillion in assets under its asset management division dwarf the US$212 billion in total assets managed by Silicon Valley Bank.

Even if the bank’s situation seems chaotic, senior investment manager Rob Burgeman of RBC Brewin Dolphin thinks it is practically unlikely for the bank to entirely fail since the consequences would be too severe. With 7,020 workers and offices in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, Credit Suisse now maintains a sizable presence in the US. It employs 5,500 people in the UK, the majority of whom are headquartered at its Canary Wharf headquarters.

The bank has participated in a number of notable M&A transactions, including assisting Express Scripts with its $34.1 billion acquisition of Medco Health Solutions, Genzyme with its $20 billion sale to Sanofi Aventis, and Energy Transfer Equity with its $9.4 billion purchase of Southern Union. Notable equity assignments also include the monetization of Mosaic shares by Cargill for US$7.5 billion, the monetization of AIG shares by the US Government for US$6 billion, and the US$3.4 billion equity & equity-linked acquisition financings for PPL.

Credit Suisse views its involvement in a number of well-known US bond offerings as evidence that it is a recognized industry leader in debt underwriting and corporate lending. According to RBC Brewin Dolphin’s chief strategist Guy Foster, if Credit Suisse is unable to uphold its reputation, regulators will have a number of options, including the ability to merge the bank with another organization, compel significant restructuring, or save the bank without putting taxpayers or potential white knights at unacceptably high risk.