Credit Suisse Posts Hefty Loss In Q4 On Charges, Warns On Q1; To Cut 4000 Jobs

(RTTNews) - Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) reported Thursday that its fourth-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders was 5.828 billion Swiss francs and pre-tax loss was 6.44 billion francs.

These results were driven primarily by a goodwill impairment charge of 3.797 billion francs, restructuring costs of 355 million francs, significant litigation items of 564 million francs, SRU pre-tax loss of 1.122 billion francs and negative impact from FVOD for 697 million francs.

Core pre-tax loss was 5.3 billion francs for the fourth quarter, and on an adjusted basis, core pre-tax loss was 0.4 billion francs.

Tidjane Thiam, Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse, said, "The fourth quarter of 2015 was characterized by volatile market conditions, pressures on market liquidity, a sharp decline in oil prices, widening credit spreads, continued uncertainty linked to asynchronous monetary policies, and large fund redemptions by market participants affecting asset prices."

Further, the Board of Directors proposed cash distribution of 0.70 franc per share for 2015, with optional scrip alternative.

Looking ahead, the company said the market conditions in January 2016 have remained challenging and that it expects markets to remain volatile throughout the remainder of the first quarter of 2016 as macroeconomic issues persist.

The company said it is implementing a reduction of approximately 4,000 positions, including employees, contractors and consultants. Combined with the measures already implemented in the fourth quarter, including the transfer of our US Private Banking, the cost savings actioned by the end of January will represent 1.2 billion francs per annum, or 34%, of the 3.5 billion francs of savings targeted by end-2018.