CS

Credit Suisse/ Credit Suisse First Boston Equities/ CS and Glencore (qv) in 2006 formed a joint venture to trade in metals and minerals derivates [Forbes.com 3 August 2006].

This partnership followed a similar joint venture set up by the two firms, in power, petrol and oil trading, along with the major US electricity utility TXU [Forbes.com ibid].

Then, in August 2011, CS announced that it had completed the first ever coking coal swap transaction via a new over the counter contract cleared by the CME Group .

The contract was between Credit Suisse and an "unnamed coal industry participant", involving 60,000 tonnes of coking coal, settled against the Platts Australian coking coal index [Reuters 29 August 2011].

The transaction was said to have have been concluded "more than three years after Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank co-launched an over the counter iron ore paper market by offering cash-settled swaps settled against index-based reference prices". This would "enable[s] [steel] mills to hedge all of their variable costs" [Reuters ibid].

As of 9 September 2011, CS held 4.95% of GCM Resources - a position that has remained constant since 2009 [Hemscott 14 August 2009]. The bank's holding is throughtCS Securities (Europe) Ltd.

Formerly known as Asia Energy, GCM is manager of the notorious, blood-stained Phulbari coal mine project in Bangladesh. Thansk to this, CS was the subject of a letter-writing campaign by European and Bangladesh NGOs in late 2007 (at which point it somewhat reduced its equity stake in GCM, but increased it shortly afterwards)

In 2009, the bank also held 4.43% of African Minerals (see Prudential PLC) [Hemscott 22 February 2009].

CS Securities Ltd has 5.79% in Central African Mining & Exploration (Camec), active in DR Congo (see Capital Group Companies, and RP Explorer Master Fund).

In February 2009, CS Securities Europe held 9.45% of Alexander Mining PLC, which sells mining and mineral processing technologies [Hemscott 12 February 2009]; 3.74% of Aricom [Hemscott 13 February 2009], and 4.72% of Mwana Africa PLC (see HSBC Global Custody Nominees (UK) Ltd)) [Hemscott 14 February 2009].

It also became the third biggest shareholder (at 3.94%) in BlackRock World Mining Trust PLC (qv) and also held:

• 5.30% of Nufcor Uranium Ltd (see Deutsche Bank) [Hemscott 14 February 2008];
• 4.76% of Kalahari Minerals PLC (see RAB Capital) [Hemscott 12 February 2008];
• 4.25% in Diamondcorp PLC [Hemscott 11 February 2008];
• 8.49% of Van Dieman Mines PLC (see Galena) [Hemscott 12 February 2008];
• 5.84% of Palmaris Capital plc (qv)

In 2003, CS arranged made a “Capital Management Arrangement” for the controversy-ridden Tampakan Copper Project in Mindanao, the Philippines, although this was terminated in 2006. [Piplinks Research, 2007]; in mid-2007 it held 3.42% of Minerals (now Intex) [Philippines Research, 2007].

CS Client Nominees (UK) was in 2008 the biggest stock holder (10.82%) in Mariana Resources Ltd, which invests in, and explores for, gold, silver, copper et al in Argentina, Chile and Ecuador [Hemscott 12 February 2008]. It also held:

• 9.27% of the seabed minerals “explorer”, Neptune Minerals PLC [Hemscott 13 February 2008];
• 7.31% of Oriel Resources – focussed on chrome and nickel in Russia [Hemscott 13 February 2008];
• a small stake (3.08%) in Cambrian Mining PLC [Hemscott 11 February 2008];
• just under 8% of Cape Diamonds PLC [Hemscott 11 February 2008];
• 12/42% of Tower Resources PLC, active in Namibia and Uganda [Hemscott 13 February 2008];
• 4.28% of gold “recovery” junior, Goldplat PLC, operating in Ghana and South Africa; and
• 4.95% of Ariana Resources plc (see Starvest PLC).

As of November 2007, CS's UK nominees held 3.13% of Palmaris Capital plc (qv.) and by mid-2007 had become the largest single shareholder in Cambridge Mineral Resources plc, engaged in extensive gold prospecting in Colombia, Peru and Bulgaria and which, in 2006, acquired the major Masa Valverde base-metal deposit in Spain. [Cambridge annual report, 2006, 14 June 2007]. CS Client Nominees’ holding in Cambridge was itself held by RAB Special Situations (Master Fund) Ltd (qv).

In February 2009, the nominees were the biggest holder of shares in Angus & Ross PLC, whose prime asset is a lead-zinc mine in western Greenland [Hemscott 12 February 2009]; and second biggest fund holder in Beowulf Mining PLC – see Sunvest Corporation Ltd [Hemscott 13 February 2009].

Credit Suisse First Boston Nominees in February 2008 held 21.85% - as the biggest shareholder – in Maghreb Minerals PLC, which explores for lead, zinc et al in Tunisia [Hemscott 12 February 2008]; and 3.26% of UMC Energy PLC [Hemscott 12 February 2008].

In July 2011, the Berne Declaration (based in Switzerland) rounded on both UBS AG and Credit Suisse for their financing of what it declared to be "the world’s most controversial mining company: Vedanta Re-sources".

Dubbing the UK-listed company its “Worst in Class", the Berne Declaration commented:

"In 2009, Vedanta earned the number two spot on a list of “most environmentally and socially controversial multinational companies” by RepRisk, a service provider for rep-utation risk, specializing in the financial sector. In 2010, Vedanta Resources occupied third place, just behind Transocean and BP. Amnesty International had already written about Vedanta in 2009, in an investor briefing specially-tailored to the financial sector. Vedanta is also one of the few firms for which Amnesty has produced a detailed research report on its human rights violations.

"[Vedanta] has plants in India, Zambia and Australia. In the high-risk mining industry, Vedanta has a particularly bad reputation. Since 1997, the firm has been confronted time and again with complaints and charges of displacement, land grabs, pollution, lack of security, tax evasion, con-struction without a permit, etc." [ One Step Forward,Two Steps Back: Credit Suisse,UBS and Human Rights, Andreas Missbach, Ph.D., Fabian Jucker, Berne Declaration, July 2011].

On the eve of the 2011 climate change conference (Conference of Parties) held in Durban, South Africa,four organisations (urgewald of Germany, BankTrack, and South Africa groups Earthlife Africa and groundWork)identified CS as the 9th heaviest financier of coal fired electricity and coal mining in the period 2005-2011. According to the report, CS had released 9,495 million euros of such funding [Bankrolling Climate Change, urgewald et al, 2011].

In March 012,Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd acted as issue manager and bookrunner for US$300 million of five-year fixed-rate notes, for Carmen Copper Corp. A subsidiary of Atlas Consolidated Mining, Carmen is said to be the first Philippines "local miner to tap the offshore debt market" [Reuters 12 March 2012].

Two months later, CS along with Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, acted as joint co-ordinators for an IPO on behalf of Graff Diamonds, a London-based retail diamond firm.

Graff chose to list on Hong Kong’s stock exchange,rather than the LSE - dealing a “bitter blow" (as cityam describes it)to the world’s leading mining stock exchange [cityam, 8 May 2012].