No change in Saudi National Bank strategy due to loss on Credit Suisse investment

Saudi National Bank's investment in Credit Suisse has been affected by reduced valuation, resulting in a loss of $1.17 billion.

"Changes in the valuation of SNB's investment in Credit Suisse have no impact on SNB's growth plans and forward-looking 2023 guidance," Saudi National Bank said in a bourse filing on Monday.

When the lender paid 5.5 billion riyals (SAR 1 = $0.2662) for an almost 9.9% stake in the troubled Swiss bank in November, it overtook Credit Suisse as its largest shareholder. At that time, SNB paid 3.82 Swiss francs (CHF 1 = $1.0810) for 307.6 million Credit Suisse shares.

However, under the terms of the $3.25 billion agreement with UBS, each share of Credit Suisse is worth 0.76 Swiss francs. SNB, based in Riyadh, confirmed to CNBC that it will consequently suffer an 80% loss on its Credit Suisse investment.

The declaration comes after SNB chairman Ammar Al Khudiary said on Bloomberg Television last week that the organization would "absolutely not" be increasing its investment in Credit Suisse. This helped to cause a larger crisis surrounding the institution, which ultimately led to its hastily negotiated merger with UBS under government mediation.