Credit Suisse profit down on write-downs

Credit Suisse profit down on write-downs

2 hours, 56 minutes ago

ZURICH, Switzerland - Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's second largest bank, said Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit dropped 72 percent because of writedowns for investment banking and money-market funds.

The bank earned 1.33 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion) in the October-December period as it took writedowns of 2.07 billion francs ($1.88 billion), which showed it continues to weather the subprime crisis better than some rivals.

It said that in mortgage securities its net subprime exposure has fallen sharply to 1.6 billion francs ($1.45 billion) from 3.9 billion francs at the end of September.

The profit was down from earnings of 4.67 billion francs in the year-earlier period, which was bolstered by investment banking and the sale of insurer Winterthur.

Chief Executive Brady W. Dougan said the latest results were "achieved in an extremely challenging environment."

Net revenue for the quarter was 9.4 billion francs ($8.5 billion), down 13 percent from the 10.8 billion francs in the same period of 2006.

For the full year, net income was 8.5 billion francs ($7.7 billion), down 25 percent from 11.3 billion francs in 2006.

Net revenue for the year rose 6 percent to 40.9 billion francs ($37.2 billion) from 38.6 billion francs a year earlier.

The earnings were largely in line with market expectations, analysts said.

The bank proposed raising its dividend to 2.50 francs a share — compared with 2.24 francs plus a par value reduction last year — and said it is already more than halfway through an 8 billion franc ($7.3 billion) share buyback, which it sped up last year.

Credit Suisse shares declined 4.3 percent to 53.50 francs ($48.62) on the Zurich stock exchange.