The Walking Dead Are Reincarnated at Credit Suisse
ByTidjane Thiam’s turnaround is delivering, even if it’s not over.
Credit Suisse Group AG was not long ago ranked alongside Deutsche Bank AG as a basket-case bank whose CEO was a possible “dead man walking.” Yet Tidjane Thiam has shaken off that prognosis by essentially copying his Swiss rival UBS Group AG. He’s shrunk his firm’s trading unit to focus on wealth management, all while cutting costs. And it’s paid off. The difficult thing will be finishing the final leg of his turnaround without any nasty surprises.
Credit Suisse’s second-quarter performance showed the recovery in full flow, with results beating expectations pretty much across the board — although analysts have been lowering the bar over the past few months. Thiam has slashed expenses and jobs without harming growth. Net revenue rose 7.5 percent, to 5.6 billion Swiss francs ($5.7 billion), even as costs fell. This is what investors like to see…
