Exit pursued by a bear

Floating Winterthur was never likely to be easy in choppy markets. So Credit Suisse can feel justifiably relieved at having passed 100% of the Swiss insurer to Axa in a clean cash deal. The price tag of SFr12.3bn (E7.9bn) doesn’t look too compelling compared to the SFr14.7bn Credit Suisse paid for the business in 1997. But the past is the past. Buying Winterthur was one of former boss Lukas Muehlemann’s craziest value-destroying follies, surpassed only by the acquisition - ironically from Axa -...