Why Credit Suisse Group is in Search of African Entrepreneurs

Written by Makula Dunbar

Mar 14, 2014

Credit Suisse Group AG is deploying investment bankers to woo African entrepreneurs as the second- biggest Swiss bank tries to build its wealth-management business on the continent.

Those bankers offer services from capital raising to trade finance and mergers and acquisitions advice, John Wright, a managing director and market leader for Africa at Credit Suisse, said in an interview in Cape Town.

“We have a dedicated group of investment bankers embedded within private banking,” said Zurich-based Wright.

“They have the mission to ensure that private bank services that normally would only be offered to platinum-level clients with fee income of $5 million and above are brought to these entrepreneurs.”

Credit Suisse is vying with UBS AG and other Swiss banks for the emerging-market millionaires as a global crackdown on tax evasion forces European and American clients to withdraw funds.

While Credit Suisse is withdrawing from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and smaller African markets to cut costs, South Africa and a number of other nations match the bank’s criteria for scale and risk, said Wright.

“It’s the usual suspects, the countries where we have critical mass,” said Wright, who declined to name them.

“There are a handful of countries that tick both boxes, and South Africa is at the top of the list.”