BrokerDealer Credit Suisse Back in the IPO Business

Brokerdealer.com/blog news extract below courtesy of  June 10 WSJ and reporters Telis Demis and Evelyn Rusi

The chinos are gone. So is the sprawling Silicon Valley hub.

facing eastBut more than a decade after its fall from the peak of the dot-com-banking business, Credit Suisse Group AG CSGN.VX -0.33% is at the helm of some of the sector’s biggest deals.

The bank is one of the lead managers of the expected $20 billion-plus initial public offering for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese online shopping and e-commerce giant.

Credit Suisse also helped lead IPOs for Weibo Corp. WB +1.39% , which operates a Twitter TWTR +2.61% -like service, and online cosmetics retailer Jumei International Holding Ltd. JMEI +0.82% , earlier this year.

Credit Suisse’s climb back in tech banking began with a Starbucks SBUX -0.77% -fueled brainstorming session in 2010 between Jim Amine, the firm’s global head of investment banking, and David Wah, global head of technology banking

Credit Suisse’s Internet-banking business stumbled after the dot-com bubble burst and Mr. Quattrone was convicted—a decision later overturned on appeal and the charges dropped by the government—of attempting to obstruct a regulatory probe into alleged abuses in share allocations.

For its new foray, the bank plucked Bangladesh-born stock analyst Imran Khan to help lead its charge as head of Internet investment banking. Mr. Khan, a number cruncher with a network of contacts throughout Asia, particularly in China, was hired in 2011 from J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.84% & Co., where he had covered Internet companies.

As a former stock analyst, Mr. Khan, 36 years old, wasn’t an obvious pick for a bank hoping to quickly ramp up. But Credit Suisse wanted someone steeped in data, capable of identifying big trends and small companies that could be IPO candidates.