CREDIT SUISSE GROUP AG ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (>> Credit Suisse Group AG) released surprisingly strong results at its domestic bank on Friday as part of Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam's restructuring, a plan that is the group's biggest shake-up in almost a decade.
To reflect the new structure, Credit Suisse restated results from 2011 through the third quarter of last year.
Thiam, CEO since July, wants to highlight the group's top-performing units, including its domestic Swiss Universal Bank, which Credit Suisse plans to partially float next year.
The planned initial public offering (IPO) of the Swiss bank in 2017 will crystallise an area of the business which Credit Suisse believes is undervalued, Thiam has said.
It should also make it easier for Credit Suisse to buy smaller Swiss banks, which are struggling under the increased regulatory cost and the end of Switzerland's long-cherished bank secrecy rules.
The newly released numbers showed the Swiss bank produced returns on regulatory capital above Credit Suisse's overall total in the first nine months of 2015.
Results were surprisingly strong because the Swiss unit also posted higher pre-tax income for 2014 than stated in October - 1.976 billion Swiss francs (1.35 billion pounds) compared to 1.6 billion francs previously.
This was due to one-off property gains, finance chief David Mathers said in an analyst call.
Some analysts have said the anticipated returns from the IPO will help beef up the Swiss bank's capital base after Thiam pushed through a 6 billion franc cash call late last year.
Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, said last year it was targeting pre-tax income of 2.3 billion francs at the domestic Swiss bank by 2018.
Thiam has pushed Credit Suisse's business more towards private banking, particularly in emerging markets, and away from investment banking. This echoed a similar move by cross-town rival UBS (>> UBS Group AG) in 2012.
As part of this plan, in October Thiam directed the Zurich-based Credit Suisse to open six new divisions based on region and expertise.
Previously, Credit Suisse only had two business units. One focussed on private banking and wealth management, and the other on investment banking.
The restatement did not change the group's consolidated result, the bank said, but gave a clearer picture of the new units' historical performance, and that of Swiss Universal Bank.
The restructuring also showed that new units focussed on managing the fortunes of the world's wealthy offered better returns in the first nine months of the year compared to the two investment banking divisions.
(Reporting by Joshua Franklin and Oliver Hirt; Editing by Michael Shields and Katharine Houreld)
