Softbank pulls investment from Credit Suisse funds
Softbank is said to have pulled an investment from Credit Suisse’s supply chain finance funds, after the Swiss bank reviewed the Japanese giant’s role in the funds.
The Swiss bank launched the review after reports last month that Softbank had injected $500m into some of Credit Suisse $7.5bn range of funds, which in turn invested in assets chosen by the Softbank-backed lender Greensill Capital.
Some of the investments made by the fund were in notes backed by loans Greensill made to other companies backed by Softbank’s Vision Fund.
Four of the 10 largest investments in Credit Suisse’s main supply-chain finance fund were Vision Fund companies at the end of March, the Financial Times reported last month, accounting for 15 per cent of its $5.2bn assets.
In a memo to the funds’ investors today, the Swiss bank said it would change investment guidelines for its supply chain finance funds.
It added that it had terminated an agreement with an investor in April for three of its four supply chain funds which exclusively sourced all of their notes through Greensill.
“This separate agreement has recently been terminated and the investor has redeemed its investment in full,” the bank said in the letter, seen by Reuters.
A source added that the investor mentioned in the letter was Softbank, and that the Japanese group had pulled its full investment from the funds.
Credit Suisse told Reuters that while the funds’ investments had previously been sourced via Greensill, they were not prevented from sourcing investments them elsewhere too.
Credit Suisse said that around 15 per cent of the notes now held by its funds were backed by companies in which the Softbank Vision Fund has minority investments.
It added that it would change its guidelines to reduce the maximum amount of exposure its funds would have to any one company.
Softbank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.