Credit Suisse has taken payment from Qatar for a number of shares, though the state is remaining silent on exactly how much has been invested and the size of the stake, Bloomberg reports.
“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,” says Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, Qatari prime minister and head of the Qatar Investment Authority.
However, the Swiss stock exchange obliges banks to disclose investors which buy up more than three per cent of shares.
Whatever the amount concerned, shares in Credit Suisse rose by 2.45% after the news broke.
This is part of Qatar’s promised $15 billion rescue package for US and European banks which have suffered from sub-prime write-downs over the coming year that was announced at the World Economic Forum.
Qatar is also planning a $1 billion fund in Malaysia, after already creating one in Finland.
It marks a growing trend of Middle Eastern and Asian investment in banks hit by the sub-prime crisis, with Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and UBS all taking state handouts.