Credit Suisse coming to RTP
Investment banking firm to add 400 jobs
Originally published in: The Herald-Sun
Friday, October 22, 2004
Edition: Final
Page: A1
BY PAUL BONNER ; 419-6621
Research Triangle Park will intersect with Wall Street beginning early next year in a move that eventually could expand the Triangle's role in supporting investment and financial services around the world.

International investment banking firm Credit Suisse First Boston will build its new global business center in RTP, creating 400 new jobs, the company and state officials announced Thursday.

Credit Suisse First Boston will receive a $3 million state grant and nearly $9 million in state incentives to develop the $100 million center, the second of its kind for the company. It will be in the Wake County portion of RTP, initially in leased quarters near Davis Drive and later in a new facility the company plans to build near there.

The company -- which has another business center in Singapore -- expects to open the RTP facility by May 2005.

The center will provide securities operations and information technology support for Credit Suisse First Boston, which is headquartered in New York and employs more than 18,000 around the world.

In a gathering of about 75 people in the Capitol in Raleigh, state and local officials praised Credit Suisse's decision to locate in RTP.

"We can provide the work force and we can provide the can-do spirit, and we can provide the best business climate," said Gov. Mike Easley.

"They're real jobs," said Easley of the Credit Suisse openings, which the company says will range from entry level to senior positions and pay an average of $72,000 annually. A "substantial majority" of the jobs will be filled by local applicants, the company said.

The center represents RTP's largest job gain in years by a company new to the park, and, if successful, it may be expanded considerably. Moreover, it could herald a new and growing field for the Triangle's tech expertise.

It will enable Credit Suisse First Boston to meet new regulatory requirements since Sept. 11, 2001, to make its securities trading and other operations better able to carry on after a terrorist attack, blackout or other potential disruption in New York.

The site search consumed 18 months, whittling down 396 prospective locations worldwide to 20, then two, Eileen Murray, Credit Suisse's head of global technology, told the gathering. The other finalist location was not in North Carolina, she said later, declining to say precisely where.

RTP prevailed because of its connections to area universities and strong partnership between business and the state, she said. The area features highly innovative enterprises matching Credit Suisse's own pioneering initiative in siting a center where few if any other large investment banks have major facilities, Murray said.

Credit Suisse First Boston, which generated $3.5 billion in net revenue during the first half of 2004, operates in 33 countries and is part of Credit Suisse Group headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

A high-profile company in the southern part of RTP is a welcome development, said Rick Weddle, president of the Research Triangle Foundation, which develops and markets RTP. Moreover, it could become a bellwether for more investment firms under the same regulatory mandate to build redundancy into their trading operations. Some of them likewise could be recruited to RTP, he said.

"A lot of companies will be monitoring it to see if it works," Weddle said. "There should be more fish in that pond if we work at it."

The Triangle, in turn, would benefit from diversifying its technology research and development, supplying new opportunities for talent coming out of its three major universities, Weddle said. Traditionally, other areas of the South, such as Charlotte, Atlanta and Richmond, have predominated investment banking support.

"Our niche has been in some other areas," he said. "It will be a positive development as it grows over time."

In July, Network Appliance Inc. said it would expand its operations in the Triangle by creating 361 new jobs over the next five years. Weddle said he couldn't recall any other announcement in recent years with more jobs by a company new to the park than Credit Suisse First Boston's 400.

"We are very mindful of the opportunity that this number could grow over time," he added.

The company is considering a tract at the end of Development Drive, he said. The site is near Cisco Systems, of which Credit Suisse has been a customer. Cisco, which makes high-end telecommunications routers, also aided state Commerce Department officials in their presentations to Credit Suisse, said Joe Freddoso, a Cisco spokesman in RTP. Sources familiar with the recruitment said Credit Suisse initially will lease space from Cisco; Freddoso said he couldn't confirm that.

Besides a $3 million grant from the One North Carolina Fund, Credit Suisse First Boston will have a customized training program supplied by the state's community college system and up to $8.9 million over 10 years from a state Job Development Investment Grant. The actual amount will be 70 percent of state personal income taxes withheld from the pay of employees in newly created jobs.

The Commerce Department estimates that the center will generate $2.4 billion in gross product in the state during 10 years, and bring in $83.7 million in net revenue to the state. The company also would contribute nearly $2.9 million to a fund for infrastructure improvements in rural areas of North Carolina.
© Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. All material on heraldsun.com is copyrighted by The Durham Herald Company and may not be reproduced or redistributed in any medium except as provided in the site's Terms of Use.