(To read more on the debt and equity markets, click here.)

NEW YORK CITY-To broaden its platform, Credit Suisse has acquired Guilford Capital Corp. It will operate the firm in conjunction with its real estate lending subsidiary, Column Financial. The firm also plans to launch a new tax credit business which will purchase tax credits from developers and sponsors and syndicate them to corporate and institutional investors for their tax management purposes.

Guilford is a finance company specializing in the acquisition and syndication of federal and state tax credits primarily for low-income housing projects. Financial details of the transaction were not released. "It feeds our consumer business and builds out our real estate business," a Credit Suisse spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com. It also has the potential of expanding the firms reach into such areas as clean energy products and historical rehabilitations. The new business will at first originate in the southeast, but will broaden.

"The Guilford acquisition enhances key growth areas of our investment banking business, including real estate lending and the federal agency-backed multi-family mortgage business," adds Robert Brennan, head of real estate finance and securitization at Credit Suisse. Guilford, which has funded tax credit eligible projects nationally with a primary focus in the Southeast, currently manages a portfolio of nearly $400 million in tax credit funds. Credit Suisse's Column Financial subsidiary has 17 offices in the US and Canada. It has closed in excess of 8,300 commercial mortgage loans, with an aggregate principal balance of more than $86.7 billion.