Koor Industries Ltd. (TASE:KOR) announced today that, following last week's purchase of shares in Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS; SWX: CSGN; XETRA: CSGZ), it intends to continue to invest in the Swiss bank. Koor reported that its total investment would reach NIS 4.2 billion. Last week, Koor bought 34 million Credit Suisse shares for CHF 1.2 billion (NIS 3.9 billion). Koor currently owns 3% of Credit Suisse.
Koor financed that purchase with CHF 900 million of its own funds and CHF 300 million with the credit line from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), under the financing agreement from May. Koor has already used CHF 100 million of this credit line. Koor and Goldman Sachs are negotiating amendments in some of the conditions of the credit line.
Last week, Credit Suisse Group turned down a Swiss government bailout and said it would raise $8.75 billion on the open market. The largest amount would come from the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign equity fund, with additional investment from the Olayan family of Saudi Arabia, and Koor. The bank posted a CHF 1.3 billion loss for the third quarter of 2008.
Koor's share rose 12.8% in early trading on the TASE today to NIS 143.20.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 19, 2008
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