Credit Suisse beat forecasts with a rise in first-quarter profit as strong earnings at its flagship private bank offset soft spots in investment banking, but it gave a mixed outlook for the year ahead. Net profit at Europe's ninth-largest bank came in at 1.910 billion Swiss francs ($1.59 billion), up 2.6 percent from the year-ago quarter and well above the average in a Reuters poll of 14 analysts of 1.570 billion francs. CS said it saw market conditions improving in the second half of the year after a dip in the second quarter, striking a relatively positive note compared to rival UBS, which on Tuesday voiced caution over its full-year outlook.
"Credit Suisse Group expects to see market activity slow considerably in the second quarter. However, the group expects market conditions to improve in the second half of 2005," it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The bank declined to say what the tepid start to the second quarter would mean for full-year results.
Credit Suisse said it saw overall net new money inflows of 15.4 billion francs in the quarter, just under the 15.6 billion in the year-earlier period, but up from 3.5 billion in the last three months of 2004. Its private banking unit alone generated 7.0 billion francs in net inflows during the quarter.
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