A thousand small Credit Suisse shareholders will file a lawsuit on Monday against the forced takeover of UBS for just a fraction of the market value of the country’s second-largest bank, in order to obtain “adequate” compensation. These are mainly Swiss private investors and the lawsuit will be brought before the Zurich commercial court, Arik Röschke of the Swiss Association for Shareholder Protection (SASV) told financial agency AWP on Sunday. He confirmed an article published by the financial times.
Currently, about 1,000 people have joined the denunciation by becoming members of the SASV, added Arik Röschke.
At the end of July, the SASV submitted its draft standard complaint with a view to initiating legal proceedings aimed at obtaining “adequate compensation” for small shareholders in the context of the takeover of the former number two Swiss bank by its competitor. usbs. These shareholders suffered a huge loss when the two-veiled bank was acquired by UBS for 3 billion francs on Sunday, March 19, 2023. This purchase price represented 76 pence per Credit Suisse share when the stock had closed the trading session of the Friday. to 1.86 Swiss francs.
The Lausanne start-up Legalpass also wants to file a complaint to obtain compensation for small shareholders. She had indicated at the end of July that more than a thousand shareholders responded to her invitation, which made it possible to secure the financing of the procedure.
worthless bonds
In addition, many professional investors have also filed a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court of St. Gallen following the cancellation of the so-called “AT1” loans from Credit Suisse. They are challenging the decision of the financial market supervisory authority Finma to declare these risky Credit Suisse bonds worth almost 16 billion francs purely and simply worthless. These bonds include complex financial instruments implemented after the 2008 financial crisis with the aim of strengthening banks.
This decision by Finma had caused astonishment among investors, since the bondholders used to arrive first in the order of repayment in the event of bankruptcy. Finma considers that the conditions under which the acquisition took place, in particular the financial guarantees granted by the federal government, fall within the exceptional circumstances provided for in Credit Suisse’s AT1 contracts and justify its decision.
Source: BFM TV
