Credit Suisse caps Zurich property sales by offloading prime site
ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) has capped a series of downtown Zurich property divestments with the sale of a building on the up-market Bahnhofstrasse to investment fund Swiss Prime Anlagestiftung.
The sale was for more than 100 million Swiss francs (£78.03 million), the finnews.ch financial website reported on Monday.
A spokesman for Switzerland's second-biggest bank confirmed the sale but gave no financial details other than to say it would be booked in the third quarter as a sale-and-leaseback transaction. He gave no reason for the sale.
Swiss Prime Anlagestiftung, managed by Swiss Prime Site (SPSN.S), also confirmed the transaction.
Credit Suisse, which made a second-quarter profit of 170 million francs, is in the midst of a revamp under Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam to focus more on wealth management and cut back on investment banking.
It has dismissed market speculation it may need fresh equity after a 6 billion franc capital raising round last year and plans to float part of its Swiss business, which the bank hopes will raise 2 billion to 4 billion francs.
The Leuenhof property - once headquarters of Bank Leu, which was absorbed into Credit Suisse in 2012 - now houses offices, luxury shops and a cafe.
(Reporting by Angelika Gruber; Writing by Michael Shields; Editing by Alexander Smith)
