Filed under: Deals, Industry, Middle East, Politics
Qatar has begun to take a stake in Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) and indicated that it is part of a program to put $15 billion into banks in the US and UK. “We have a relation with Credit Suisse and we bought some of the stock from the market, actually, but I cannot say what percentage because still we are in the process,” the Arab country’s prime minister told Bloomberg.
Qatar might get a opportunity to invest every last dime of its fund. While banks have written off some of their subprime exposure, they still have billions of dollars of structured investments on their balance sheets. They also face potential write-downs on credit card holdings and corporate LBO loans which could drop in value if the credit markets remain largely frozen.
With more losses nearly certain, many big banks will have to face what they will do if sovereign funds from Asia and the Middle East want to provide them with billions of dollars to rescue them in exchange for massive percentages of ownership. Congress has objected to some of these investments as partial takeovers of the most important banks in the US.
Unless the federal government wants to come up with the money, though, its objections are hollow.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Entries (RSS)