Credit Suisse has sold prime Zurich real estate like the Metropol, Griederhaus and Volksbank buildings to raise cash and bolster its capital position. The Swiss bank recently decided to sell another property on the city's tony Bahnhofstrasse, finews.ch has learned.
Credit Suisse has put the so-called «Leuenhaus» on the block – a prestigious art nouveau building located at Bahnhofstrasse 32. Formerly home to Bank Leu, which Credit Suisse bought in 1990 and fully integrated in 2012, the building has extra capacity, a Credit Suisse spokesman told finews.ch, confirming the planned sale.
The move represents a further withdrawal of Credit Suisse from Bahnhofstrasse, an upscale shopping street in the heart of Zurich that is home to luxury brands like Prada and Cartier and to many of Switzerland's exclusive private banks.
Heritage-Protected
The building, built by Bank Leu in 1915, enjoys Swiss landmark protection. In 2007, Credit Suisse plowed roughly 20 million Swiss francs into restoring the site, which also houses an Italian-style cafe on the ground floor.
Credit Suisse has been forced to offload several jewels from its real estate portfolio in recent years, mainly to bolster its capital position.
It sold the former Volksbank building to Axa Winterthur, the Metropol to Switzerland's central bank, its Uetlihof site in Zurich to Norwegian sovereign wealth fund and shareholder in the bank Norges, and the Griederhaus, a shopping center adjoined to Leuehaus, to watchmaker Swatch.
Credit Suisse still owns Lichthof, its main offices in Zurich, as well as the Savoy, a luxury hotel across the square from its headquarters.
