Credit Suisse
Highly Regarded
The first years of Credit Suisse’s relationship with Indonesia were chaotic. In 1996, the Swiss bank started its coverage of southeast Asia’s biggest economy from an offshore office in Singapore. Then the Asian financial crisis hit in 1997 and 1998, and Indonesia rapidly unravelled: the rupiah collapsed and then-president Suharto was ousted after 31 years in power. Officials in Zurich must have wondered what they had been thinking.
But in 2021, the bank’s 25th year of deepening its business and relationships in Indonesia, things look remarkably different. Despite a year of Covid lockdowns, Credit Suisse’s private banking arm gained access to some of the top deals of the year.
These include a $25 million share-backed loan using unpledged shares for an ultra high net worth client; a corporate advisory plus IPO mandate for a client from the Surabaya area; and a case where the investment bank worked with an Indonesian family listed in the Forbes 50, which led to Credit Suisse’s private bank bringing on board the client and a couple of his family members.
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