A (very) recently fired Credit Suisse employee tells us that “Every conference room on the CMBS floor has an HR representative working through people as they show up for work. Analysts and Associates seem to be the first out the door.” We understand that for the victims, this might seem like bad news, and yeah, you’ll probably feel weird about going to Shake Shack for a while, but the flipside is that you won’t have to deal with the embarrassment of being employed by Bear Stearns, when the two banks merge. In related news, Morgan Stanley has announced plans for its own population restructuring, as modeled after the redistribution project in the Sudan. If you have any other info, feel free to share, or not share, otherwise, enjoy this one on me:
Credit Suisse
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Credit Suisse
Layoffs Watch ’08: Current And Upcoming Shitcannings At Credit Suisse And Morgan Stanley, Respectively
By Bess Levin- Posted in:
Credit Suisse
Lawyers Prosecuting Credit Suisse Banker Ambivalent About Whether Or Not They’re Going For A Guilty Verdict
By Bess LevinFormer Credit Suisse investment banker Hafiz Naseem pleaded not guilty yesterday to allegations that he was “the mastermind” behind a $7 million insider-trading ring in which he leaked details about nine deals that Credit Suisse was an adviser on, including the $45 billion leveraged buyout of TXU. The prosecution’s foolproof rebuttal? Naseem had a gambling problem, and was up to his toes in $5,000 of debt, which is totally a plausible reason for committing a $7 million felony. Geniuses. (A lawyer for Naseem has denied these accusations as well, saying that while the $5,000 debt part of the story is true, the gambling part is not. It was a heroin thing, and was taken care of in a completely legal fashion.)
Credit Suisse Case Shocker [NYP]
So last week we broke the story of layoffs at Credit Suisse. At the time we were hearing that as many as 400 people were going to be laid off. When Credit Suisse finally formally announced the job cuts the next day, they claimed they were only cutting 150 positions.
So it seemed like the initial information we had from insiders at Credit Suisse overstated the depth of the cuts. Until today.
Today the gnomes of Madison Park said that they are cutting an additional 170 fixed income positions.
Total job losses at Credit Suisse so far: 320. Just 80 more and our first report will be proven correct!
Update 11:45 PM: DealBook is reporting that the investment bank is laying off about 150 workers from its mortgage-backed securities unit. Sourced to “a person with knowledge of the matter.”
Earlier reports: Credit Suisse is rumored to have laid off a massive amount of New York employees today. The whisper number for the layoffs was 400 people in New York. Two people familiar with the situation say that within the bank that’s the number people are talking about. DealBreaker has been given strong reason to believe that the actual number number is far lower. We’re also told that no investment bankers have been laid off.
The layoffs are said to be a continuation of similar layoffs in mortgage related units at other investment banks, according to a knowledgeable source. The gossip had been that the structured products group took the hit. But we spoke to someone at the structured products desk at Credit Suisse who says that his group is still hiring.
This summer’s credit crunch and subsequent drying up of the leveraged buyout market, have sparked persistent rumors and predictions of job losses on Wall Street. It’s clear that there are lots of jitters all across Wall Street.
Credit Suisse could not immediately be reached for comment. We’ll update this space as we get more information.
Update 6:30: We’re sending a reporter over there to see what’s up. Will scout nearby bars for CSers drowning their sorrows.
Update 7:00 We’re out of here. Check comments below for additional rumor-mongering. We’ll check back in later tonight when we’ve had a chance to check our email again.
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Citigroup
Cracking KKR
Private Equity Giant Shows Willingness To Make Concessions On Closely Watched LBO Deal
By John Carney The banks have won the first big show down with private equity.
Last night several news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, reported that private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has signaled a willingness to include a financial covenant for the bank loan portion of the $24 billion of debt needed to finance its purchase of First Data.
First Data was largely viewed as a test case for some of the biggest, and riskiest, of the highly leveraged buyout deals that are scheduled to close in the next few weeks and months. The banks had been asking the private equity sponsors of the deals for concessions on the terms of the financing, saying it was having trouble syndicating the debt due to recent concerns about debt levels by many investors.
Finally, the National Pension Service (NPS) of South Korea is letting some of the bulge bracket banks into its $220 billion coffers. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are the first to get a piece of the pie, although we hope they aren’t that hungry. South Korea is condescending to let Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse manage $500 million and $450 million respectively, for a whopping(ly disappointing) three years.
“Oh. Um…great. Well, thanks, I guess,” said Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Asia Head, Blair Pickerell, while David Blumer, Credit Suisse’s chief executive officer for asset management, reenacted the title track from Oliver! the musical (“Please, Sir, I want some more.”).
Taking a note from its batty Northern neighbor, the NPS deals exclusively in five-year plans, from MarketWatch:
NPS plans to double the proportion of its offshore investment to 20% by 2012, when it expects to have assets worth KRW400 trillion, it said recently when it unveiled its 2007-2012 investment strategy. Global asset managers will manage all of its offshore investments during the period, but NPS plans to gradually increase its direct offshore investment after that. It also targets to further increase its international investment allocation to 50% sometime around 2040, when NPS’s assets are forecast to reach KRW2,600 trillion.
NPS does plan on throwing scraps to some other major banks to manage funds in the future, although it’s several five-year plans away.
Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse to manage Korean national pension assets [MarketWatch via DealBook]
Lehman may have dominated day one of the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, but day 2 was more bearish for bankers, and bullish for GlaxoSmithKline. Day 2 also featured faster times overall.
GlaxoSmithKline was responsible for two explosive runs on the women’s side, courtesy of over the counter diet drug Alli, and the fact that the top two finishers, both from GSK, did not bring a pair of dark running shorts. Jessie Webb ran a 20:03 and Christa Meyer ran a 20:24, losing an impressive 7 pounds.
The only banker in the women’s top five was Sumitomo’s Katarina Melville who finished in third with a 20:27. Only a financial services employee, accustomed to much longer periods of getting shat on, was able to draft the GSK girls so closely.
Andy Bishop from GSK finished in fifth for the men with an 18:40.
The top two male finishers from last year squared off in the same race this time, and finished in the same order. Karl Dusen from AIG ran a 17:25 and John Traugott of Credit Suisse ran a 17:48. Dusen finished with the top overall time (too early to start “Dynasty” talk?), while Traugott’s time was 6 seconds off yesterday’s top finisher, placing him in third overall.
Click here to take a photographic journey of the race.
2007 New York results [JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge]
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