Africa’s Untapped Opportunity

Eva Warigia, Associate Director, Investor Relations at New Forests, explains how responsibly-managed plantation forestry in Sub-Saharan Africa is becoming an increasingly attractive asset class.

The African continent hosts 17% of the world’s forests. However, nearly four million hectares of these are lost each year, leading to a 3% loss of gross domestic product associated with soil and nutrient depletion, according to a report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. The report points out…

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Credit Suisse AT1 bondholders sue Switzerland over $17bn wipeout

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Credit Suisse bondholders sue Switzerland in the U.S. over $17 billion writedown of AT1 debt

A group of Credit Suisse bondholders filed a lawsuit against the Swiss government, seeking full compensation over the contentious decision to write down the failed bank’s Additional Tier 1 (AT1) debt. Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents the plaintiffs, on Thursday said that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A spokesperson for the Swiss Finance Ministry declined to comment. The Credit Suisse Group AG headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A group of Credit Suisse bondholders filed a lawsuit against the Swiss government, seeking full compensation over the contentious decision to write down the failed bank’s Additional Tier 1 (AT1) debt.

As part of Credit Suisse’s emergency sale to UBS last year, which was orchestrated by the Swiss government, Swiss regulator Finma wiped out roughly $17 billion of the bank’s AT1s, writing them down to to zero.

The bank’s common shareholders received payouts when the sale was completed.

The move angered bondholders and was seen to have upended the usual European hierarchy of restitution in the event of a bank failure under the post-financial crisis Basel III framework, which typically places AT1 bondholders above stock investors.

Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents the plaintiffs, said Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It described Switzerland’s decision to write down the plaintiffs’ AT1 value to zero as “an unlawful encroachment on the property rights of the AT1 Bondholders.”

A spokesperson for the Swiss Finance Ministry declined to comment.

Finma previously defended its decision to instruct Credit Suisse to write down its AT1 bonds in March last year as a “viability event.”

“Through its actions, Switzerland needlessly wiped out $17 billion in AT1 instruments, unjustly violating the property rights of the holders of those instruments,” Dennis Hranitzky, partner and head of Quinn Emanuel’s Sovereign Litigation practice, said in a statement.

The face value of the AT1 bonds held by the plaintiffs in the suit was over $82 million, Reuters reported, citing the filing.

This photograph taken on March 24, 2023 in Geneva, shows a sign of Credit Suisse bank. Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

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War, what war? Putin looks to woo new business partners willing to overlook its invasion of Ukraine

Russia’s annual economic forum in St. Petersburg used to be known as the country’s “Davos” in a nod to the World Economic Forum that’s held in Switzerland every year. War in Ukraine has changed the dial in global geopolitical and trade relations, however. The days of scores of Western business leaders and heads of state attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum are long gone. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen while visiting the Lakhta Center on June 5, 2024, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Vladimir Putin visited a newly built Lakhta Center, a skyscraper of Gazprom, prior to his meetings at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum SPIEF 2024. Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Russia’s annual economic forum in St. Petersburg used to be known as the country’s “Davos” in a nod to the World Economic Forum that’s held in Switzerland every year.

War in Ukraine has changed the dial in global geopolitical and trade relations, however. The days when scores of Western business leaders and heads of state attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event that enables Russia to showcase its economy and investment opportunities, are long gone.

Now, Russia is looking to use SPIEF to court new relationships with countries apparently less squeamish about doing business with a country that has invaded its neighbor — namely a number of countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa — and those willing to turn a blind eye to the war for their own economic interests, such as Russia’s oil and gas customers in eastern Europe, Slovakia and Hungary.

SPIEF is the latest effort in the Kremlin’s campaign to try to show that everything is still normal, Max Hess, fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and author of “Economic War: Ukraine and the Global Conflict Between Russia and the West,” told CNBC Thursday.

“They trumpet and highlight international attendees and domestic propaganda, extremely, but except for a few of the usual characters like the Hungarian Foreign Minister [Peter Szijjarto], nobody new and notable is showing up and also no new major investments or deals will be agreed at this forum, at least not with major foreign countries,” he said.

A view of the stand of the Russian private bank Alfa-Bank during the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic

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