A deep dive into UBS' plan to rid itself of Credit Suisse's Australian debt
Credit Suisse carved out a lucrative niche in Australia writing billions of dollars in leveraged and bilateral loans. But its new owner UBS isn't interested.
Before its demise, Credit Suisse carved out a lucrative niche in Australia writing leveraged and bilateral loans to private equity players, corporates and other investment funds around the country. It was a market few of its rivals would touch, and because of the juicy interest rates on offer, a nice earner for the Swiss investment bank.
Named the APAC Financing Group (AFG) loan book inside Credit Suisse, the business unit wrote around $2 billion in corporate loans in Australia - many of which have maturities of around two-to-three years and will need refinancing in coming years, two sources familiar with the matter told Capital Brief on condition of anonymity.
The loans have been performing and are not distressed. But they have been listed as non-core by their new owner UBS, the 167 year old Zurich based bank which acquired Credit Suisse earlier this year in a rescue deal engineered by Swiss authorities.
As Capital Brief reported this week, the process of offloading the Australian loan book has now begun with Macquarie Group and US private credit outfit Ares Management both mentioned by sources close to the process as interested parties. Many other private credit funds and special situations players are also expected to be interested.
