Strong performance at Credit Suisse's $17bn (€13.7bn) private equity and asset management operation has boosted an otherwise lacklustre second quarter at the Swiss banking giant.

Private equity sales and flotations lifted quarterly profits in the wealth and asset management division to Sfr301m from Sfr136m in the first three months of the year. These included the sale of stakes in TXU Energy and Nextel in the US, lifting revenues to $1.5bn in the division - more than twice that of a year ago and well up from Sfr866m in the first quarter this year.