Credit Suisse Names Rubio and Mesny EMEA Co-Heads for FIG

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG has named Armando Rubio and Morgan Stanley banker Max Mesny as co-heads of its financial institutions group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to a memo.

Eric Richard will become vice chairman of the business, according to the memo confirmed by a bank spokeswoman.

Credit Suisse, in addition to advising on mergers of financial companies, raised 4.1 billion Swiss francs ($4.2 billion) in its own rights issue in April, part of the busiest year for bank recapitalization in the EMEA region since 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Rubio, who joined Credit Suisse in 2000, was previously head of Southern Europe FIG at the firm, according to the memo. Deals he advised on this year have included Banco Santander SA's 7 billion-euro ($8.3 billion) stock sale to fund its purchase of Banco Popular Espanol SA, the sale of Qatar Investment Authority's stake in Santander Brasil and the initial public offering of Unicaja Banco SA. Rubio and his team also worked on National Bank of Greece SA's sale of its Bulgarian unit to KBC Groep NV.

Mesny will join the bank in January from Morgan Stanley where he was co-head of financial technology and diversified financial services in EMEA, according to the memo. Deals he worked on this year include U.S. private equity fund Hellman & Friedman's purchases of Allfunds Bank SA in Spain and Nordic digital payments firm Nets A/S.

Rubio and Mesny will succeed Richard, who became co-head of the bank's EMEA FIG division in 2009 and the sole head of it in 2015.

This month Credit Suisse shook up management at its European investment-banking operations with a series of appointments, including naming Mathew Cestar and Jens Welter co-heads of advisory and origination in Europe, as it seeks to improve returns.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ruth David in London at rdavid9@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net, Michael J. Moore