Investment banking company UBS has agreed to purchase its rival Credit Suisse in a deal worth more than $3 billion after the Swiss government mediated the merger between the country’s two largest banks to avoid chaos in the financial markets before March 20.
The announcement came after government officials had been scrambling for several days to figure out how to save the troubled lender Credit Suisse, a 167-year-old banking giant.
Credit Suisse shareholders will receive 1 UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares owned, or CHF 0.76 per share, for a total value of CHF 3 billion ($3.24 billion), according to a press release by UBS. The offer price is nearly 60 percent less than Credit Suisse’s March 17 closing price of CHF1.86….