Meyer Burger may sue Credit Suisse - report

Mar 24, 2014 - Swiss solar technology firm Meyer Burger (SWF:MBTN) may take legal action against Swiss bank Credit Suisse (VTX:CSGN), Schweiz am Sonntag reported.

It was disclosed that last week Credit Suisse’s office in Frankfurt was searched by the Stuttgart prosecution. The latter has begun investigating an asset manager of the bank based on allegations of insider trading in relation to the purchase of German solar group Roth & Rau AG by Meyer Burger in 2011.

Meyer Burger then paid EUR 350 million (USD 481.8m) for the firm and the acquisition tuned out to be a financial disaster. In 2012 the buyer wrote off CHF 100 million (USD 12.9m/EUR 81.9m) of the value of the acquired firm. The Investment Banking division of Credit Suisse was hired by Roth & Rau as a consultant in the transaction. This makes Credit Suisse’s manager an insider and means buying shares of the solar group before the deal was forbidden.

Based on the results of the investigation, the Swiss company may have good chances to receive compensation payments. The latter could exceed CHF 100 million, a senior manager said.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.377)
(CHF 1.0 = USD 1.129/EUR 0.82)

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