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Dankner buys more Credit Suisse, minutes before shares skyrocket By Michael Rochvarger Tags: Nochi Dankner, Israel News  Last Friday night, Nochi Dankner, the controlling shareholder of the IDB group, was watching what was happening in world markets. Dankner, who personally manages his Koor subsidiary's holdings in Credit Suisse, saw that the bank's shares had fallen another 5.5% and were now down 64% to a low of 34 Swiss francs a share - compared to 94.8 francs a share in April 2007. Dankner decided the time had come to make a significant strategic move in Credit Suisse stock. Dankner is known for making decisions on his own and only later informing his subordinates at IDB. His decision was based partly on the knowledge that the heads of the G-7 leading industrialized nations and European leaders were meeting over the weekend to formulate a plan to rescue world financial markets, at a cost of trillions of dollars. He also thought the steep fall in Credit Suisse shares was more a result of investors' panic and hysteria, and not an indication that the Swiss bank was on the verge of collapse. By Saturday Dankner had pretty much made up his mind, and he became more certain Sunday, after he saw how the Israeli stock market stood up well against the steep drops in global markets. Soon after trading closed Sunday in Tel Aviv, he called the CEO of Credit Suisse, Brady Dougan, and its chairman, Walter Kielholz, and set a meeting for Monday morning. Advertisement In the meantime, the bank's board had approved the sale of 3% of the bank's shares to Dankner, at that low price. The money will go directly to the bank; these were not shares being sold on the stock market. Dankner flew to Zurich Sunday night, accompanied by Ami Arel, the president of Discount Investments, and his right-hand man, Haim Gavrielli. The next morning he closed the deal with the executives of Credit Suisse. Around 9 A.M., about five minutes before trading opened, Dankner received the call from Tel Aviv informing him that Koor's board had approved the deal. Then, just minutes before trading started in Zurich, the two sides shook hands on the deal, which is to close by October 21, but sources say it should be finished even sooner. Right after the deal closed, trading began, and Credit Suisse shares took off in Zurich and New York by more than 28% - and Dankner made a paper profit of $300 million in one day. This appears to be the largest ever single-day profit by an Israeli. Yesterday, Credit Suisse shares rocketed up another 15.2% to 50.5 francs a share, up a total of 43% in just 36 hours, giving Dankner and Koor a profit of $430 million for two days - on paper at least. At a time when banks are collapsing or being nationalized, Dankner made his second biggest investment ever, after his purchase of Cellcom. Koor purchased a total of 34 million shares of Credit Suisse at 35 francs each, 3.03% of the bank for 1.2 billion francs, or about $1 billion. Much of this money came from Koor's seven previous sales of Credit Suisse stock over the past three months, on which it made NIS 533 million in profit in the third quarter. Dankner examined 26 banks before deciding to invest in Credit Suisse, which specializes in private banking. The other two finalists were two well-known British banks: Barclays and HSBC. IDB will now be the third largest shareholder in Credit Suisse, after the Alliance investment fund, which owns about 7% of the bank (as well as 7% of Bank Hapoalim), and the Saudi Olyan family, which owns about 3.7% of the bank. Dankner has not ruled out increasing Koor's holdings in the bank to 4% or 5%, and may appoint a director for the bank in the future, too. However, for now he has no interest in attempting any form of takeover, which would require at least a 10% share in the Swiss bank. Dankner is not allowed to sell off any Credit Suisse shares until the deal closes, according to the agreement with the bank, but for now he is interested in holding on to his stake. But based on his past history of profit taking, it is not clear how long he may actually hold on to his new stake. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Israel policy Obama camp dismisses Jesse Jackson's remarks on ridding the U.S. of 'Zionist control.' Welcome to AqsaTube The Palestinian militant group Hamas launches its own version of YouTube.

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