Cost cuts outweighed revenue declines to beat the consensus of analysts' forecasts of 911 million francs. With the share buyback CS joins the ranks of rivals UBS, Deutsche Bank and others to announce repurchase plans to return surplus capital to shareholders, said analyst Simon Maughan at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
"That was the biggest positive for us in the results," Maughan said.
The strong fourth quarter completed a tumultuous year for the group but still pales in comparison to rival UBS, which last week reported a record 2004 result and its best-ever quarterly profit of 2.02 billion francs.
Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel said the restructuring still had "some way to go" but it would already generate better revenues and profits this year despite a mixed market environment. The bank declined to provide clear earnings guidance.
Nothing short of a big acquisition stood in the way of launching the buyback once shareholders approve it, he said.
Analysts said the quarterly results picture was clouded by a number of one-off charges but the buyback plan was welcome.
Fourth-quarter results were boosted by increases in trading income and profits from corporate and retail banking, although results at the group's private bank, one of the world's largest catering to wealthy clients, slipped slightly.
In one key measure, net new assets at the group's private bank amounted to 3.9 billion francs in the quarter, which put total group assets under management at 1.221 trillion francs.