Swiss government awards $9.7 million contract related to Credit Suisse - UBS merger

By Oliver Hirt

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government has awarded an advisory mandate worth up to 8.7 million Swiss francs ($9.70 million) to Alvarez & Marsal Switzerland, linked to the rescue of Credit Suisse, according to state procurement platform Simap.ch on Monday.

Swiss authorities last month engineered a takeover of struggling Credit Suisse by rival UBS that included over 200 billion francs in financial guarantees.

As part of the shotgun marriage between Switzerland's two largest banks, Bern told UBS it would cover up to 9 billion francs of losses on the sale of Credit Suisse assets that are difficult to value.

UBS would cover the first 5 billion francs of losses. "For the contractual implementation of the granting of the guarantee, the Confederation needs advice and support in the short term from an economic point of view," it says on Simap.ch. Since the merger of the banks is to be completed very quickly, the guarantee to cover losses must be prepared immediately, it said. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance said that Alvarez & Marsal would provide advice to the government during the negotiations to draw up a detailed agreement with UBS and in the liquidation of the assets.

A spokesperson for Alvarez & Marsal confirmed the mandate. Ten days ago, the Ministry of Finance also awarded the law firm Niederer Kraft Frey (NKF) a contract to advise on the contractual implementation of the granting of the guarantee. The Ministry of Finance will pay up to CHF 10.3 million for this service.

($1 = 0.8965 Swiss francs)

(Writing by Noele Illien; Editing by Sharon Singleton)