Credit Suisse sells headquarters

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse said Thursday it had sold its headquarters, an enormous office complex in Zurich, to Norway's state pension fund for 1.0 billion Swiss francs ($1.07 billion, 800 million euros). The bank said it had sold the building, known as "Uetlihof", to Norway's sovereign wealth fund -- one of the world's biggest -- but that it would lease it back for at least the next quarter century. "Credit Suisse will lease the property for 25 years, commencing today, with the option to extend the lease by up to 15 years," the bank said in a statement. It said that Uetlihof would continue to serve as its global headquarters. The sale of the building, a 137,807-square-metre (452,123-square-foot) complex built in the 1970s, would net the bank a net capital gain of 83.7 million Swiss francs, it said. The move came after the Swiss central bank last year demanded that Credit Suisse increase its capital holdings, to ensure that Switzerland's second largest bank would survive any major crisis. The bank last September sold its "Metropol" building -- only yards from its headquarters in Zurich Paradeplatz -- to the Swiss central bank for an undisclosed sum.