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Credit Suisse and Roche post jump in profits

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Credit Suisse and Roche post jump in profits
CS made more money in the second quarter. Photo: publicdomain.jpg

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has reported a 32 percent rise in second-quarter profit from a year ago to 1.04 billion francs, largely thanks to a strong trading performance.

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The result beat expectations by analysts polled by Swiss business news agency AWP, who had predicted an average net profit of around 1.01 billion francs.

Pre-tax profits jumped by 38 percent to 1.53 billion francs, the group said in a statement on Thursday.

In its private banking and wealth management divisions, net revenue remained stable at 3.4 billion francs, with an increase in revenue from financial transactions and higher fees offsetting lower incomes from other products.

The bank, which has embarked on a major restructuring, said it had made savings of 2.7 billion francs and was on track to achieve its goal of reducing spending by 4.4 billion francs by the end of 2015.

Over the past three months, Credit Suisse has cut an additional 600 jobs, leaving it with a global workforce of 46,300 staff.

The bank's second-quarter results mirrored the recent spike in profits reported by US investment banks.

Meanwhile pharmaceuticals giant Roche announced a 40-percent leap in net profit for the first half on Thursday, saying this was driven in part by sales growth.

Net profit hit 6.04 billion francs in the January to June period, Roche said in a statement.

Sales rose by four percent on a 12-month basis to 23.29 billion francs.

The group's flagship pharmaceuticals division contributed 18.1 billion francs of that performance, posting a four-percent increase.

Sales by Roche's diagnostics wing were up two percent to 5.13 billion francs.

The figures tallied with analysts' forecasts.

"Roche delivered strong operating results in the first half of 2013, driven by our existing portfolio, recently launched cancer medicines Perjeta and Kadcyla, as well as continued growth in the clinical laboratory business," chief executive Severin Schwan said.

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