(Bloomberg) --
Credit Suisse shares fell after the Swiss bank ousted its chairman, leaving a number of analysts questioning the bank’s leadership.
The shares slid as much as 2.2% in Zurich, among the worst performers on the Stoxx 600 Financial Services Index. That trimmed its year-to-date gain to 5.2%, trailing the Stoxx 600 Bank Index’s gain of more than 10%.
The departure of Antonio Horta-Osorio “leaves Credit Suisse with a lack of strong characters at the top and leadership questions will likely be raised,” Citigroup analyst Andrew Coombs wrote in a note.
Horta-Osorio was replaced by Axel P. Lehmann, a Credit Suisse board member who oversees the risk committee but is little known outside Zurich.
Here are more comments from analysts:
Citigroup, Andrew Coombs (buy)
- “We expect Axel Lehmann to adopt a more traditional chairman approach, with less day-to-day involvement in the running of the bank.”
- “In the medium-term we do wonder if the focus on growth over capital return and revenue growth over cost saves may be revisited.”
JPMorgan, Kian Abouhossein (underweight)
- The chairman’s exit is “another negative”
- “We believe these issues at Credit Suisse are going to lead to ongoing scrutiny by regulators, group risk aversion and hence implied cost of equity will likely stay high.”
- “Axel Lehmann in our view has a well-established profile in Switzerland and he along with the CEO is likely to continue working on improving the risk culture.”
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Tom Hallett (underperform)
- “Another change at the top in such a short space of time naturally raises question marks around the new strategy and other potential changes to management.”
- “We believe other than some tweaks, nothing major is likely to change to the strategy in the short-medium term.”
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