Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sugar stocks may increase in the 2010-11 season if the sugar harvest in Brazil is not spoiled by rains in April, Jonathan Kingsman told the Dubai Sugar Conference 9 February. It is nevertheless unlikely to meet demand. The conference is organized by Lausanne-based Kingsman SA, an international sugar consultancy and brokerage.
World stocks have been depleted by two years of shortages. World sugar demand significantly outstripped supply in fiscal 2009, which ends in March 2010, pushing up the price of the white crystal and eating into world stocks. The price of white sugar rose 9 February for a second day in London trading on speculation that shortages will continue, reports Bloomberg. The price reached almost $724 for a metric ton (mt).
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss households like their Internet access to be fixed and high-speed, with 71 percent of households having access and 89 percent of those connected using high-speed cable or telephone lines. The figures are part of the results of a survey of 1,147 homes in September 2009, carried out by the Swiss federal communications office (Ofcom). Swiss private use of the Internet is high, with 75 percent of users going on the Internet virtually daily and 20 percent at least once a week: only 11 percent use it less than an hour a week, with 30 percent going online for at least 10 hours a week.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss banks take four out of the 10 top slots in Euromoney’s annual ranking of international private wealth managers, published 8 February. The number one place this year goes to Credit Suisse, which bumped UBS out of the place it has held since the rankings were created in 1994. UBS is now third, with HSBC remaining in second place. Zurich’s Bank Julius Baer is seventh and Geneva’s Pictet is tenth. The list is created by combining performance figures with nominations; more than 1,800 nominations were received this year.
Figures published in January 2009 by the Swiss Bankers Association show Switzerland as the global leader in offshore private banking money, with 27 percent of the world market. Other top players, such as the US and the UK, continue to lag well behind.
The news that Swiss banks are still pulling in large amounts of private wealth comes on the heels of several media reports in recent days that suggest Swiss banking has taken a severe battering. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) 31 January wrote of a “renewed assault” on Swiss banks, once it became clear that Germany was likely to buy bank client data stolen from a Swiss bank.
But the US newspaper a week later wrote that the “gloom on Swiss banks looks overdone”, saying that Germany’s threats are legally dubious and most likely designed a “ruse” to frighten clients. This plus the US-bank UBS court case in 2009 “must be seen in perspective.
Homeless Haitians, post-earthquake, have set up tents on a golf course (photo: ©2010 Marco Dormino/UN)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva Tuesday 9 February made an urgent plea for another kind of aid for Haiti: weather services. The organization points out that “the rainy season with flood risk is due in early April and the hurricane season begins in early June. In order to prevent potential disasters related to natural hazards, which the country is prone to, the capacity of Haiti to produce and disseminate weather information and warnings needs to be developed without delay.”
More than 90 percent of the disasters in Haiti “are linked to frequently occurring meteorological, hydrological and climate-related hazards,” says the WMO.
The country’s meteorological services have operated only partially since the 12 January earthquake, so other WMO member countries have been providing weather information.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A group of researchers based at Chuv (University Hospitals) in Lausanne have published the results of a 23-year study of Swiss homicide-suicides in The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology (28 January 2010 issue). Their conclusion: a stricter weapons law would help reduce the number of such deaths. The study was undertaken in the context of an ongoing national debate over military laws that require soldiers to keep guns at home. Switzerland has a national militia.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fourth quarter profits for 2009 were CHF1.205 million, says Swiss bank UBS, offering investors a brighter face after months of gloomy news about its financial results and legal problems. The figure was three times that projected by analysts contacted by Swiss news agency AWP. It leaves the bank with a loss for the year 2009 of CHF2.74 million, from a loss of CHF21.30m in 2008. The company published the figures Tuesday morning 9 February.
All business divisions reported a pre-tax profit. The improved performance, after four straight quarters of losses, was due to cost-cutting and efficiency, with fixed costs reduced to CHF20.2 billion, “broadly in line with the CHF20b target set for 2010″ the financial report indicates.
Omega at the Torino Olympics 2006
Omega has a long history with the Olympic Games
Update (link added) Biel-Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Gross sales in 2009 were down 6.3 percent for the Swatch Group, which 9 February published audited figures in advance of its March annual meeting, but it gained significant market share. The group notes that the overall sales figure for the Swiss Watch Federation were down 21.3 percent. The watch segment of the group’s business had “a very convincing operating margin” which contributed to the 17.6 percent increase in operating margin for the year.
The group puts 2009 into perspective against a backdrop of an outstanding 2008, the 2009 global economic crisis and unfavourable exchange rates. But 2010, it says, is off to a good start, with January sales the highest on record for that month, and orders strong. Swatch’s Omega brand as the Vancouver Olympics timekeeper is expected to give group sales a boost.
Rescuers say finding a healthy survivor who had been under an avalanche for 17 hours is a rare experience. Swiss media flocked to the bedside of Cédric Genoud in Sion, where he is being observed for two days.
Update 09:31 Sion, canton Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Cédric Genoud, the 21-year-old who survived 17 hours under an avalanche and was rescued Sunday near Evolène, recounts his ordeal in a lengthy interview on TSR and in the Tribune de Genève.
The EPFL student says he decided to ski off-piste for the first time without the equipment for it, and when he was caught by an avalanche the only thing he was able to do was move his head and make a small air pocket with his helmet, a move that saved him.
He remained conscious during the night, in part because the pain in one leg that was twisted kept him awake – and for the first time in his life he prayed, and then he began to hope that animals would smell and find him. He ate snow to keep from being dehydrated. But he never gave up hope or let go of his desire to live.
This one wasn't at the Hallenstadion
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s competition watchdog Comco is to investigate the five-year agreement, which came into force early 2009, between the country’s largest ticket-seller, Ticketron, and the Hallenstadion Zurich (AGH), one of its biggest concert venues. Comco will look into the details of the agreement which obliges the organizers of events at the Hallenstadion to offer least 50 percent of the tickets for sale through Ticketcorner.
Ticketcorner has been in the sights of the Federal Competition Commission before. In 2006, after an appeal, it was absolved of monopolistic behaviour.
Reprinted in GenevaLunch with permission from IP Watch. IP Watch is a Geneva-based newsletter covering intellectual property issues.
By William New, editor, IP Watch
The United States Department of Justice yesterday told the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that progress had been made on its concerns in the settlement allowing internet search giant Google to scan millions of books into a searchable database. But the government lawyers continue to have doubts on copyright, class certification and antitrust issues, they said.
Justice made its views known in a 31-page filing [pdf] filed with the court on 4 February. While it praised efforts so far, the department said, “the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation.”
In The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc. case, the district court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the proposed amended settlement agreement on 18 February.
Warsaw, Poland (GenevaLunch) - England and Switzerland were both drawn in the same group for the qualifying round of the UEFA 2012 Euro championships. The other teams in the group are Bulgaria, Wales and Montenegro. England manager Fabio Capello claimed it was a difficult group, not the opinion of most observers. He was irritated that the draw was overshadowed by the continuing scandal related to sacked England captain John Terry.
Perhaps the toughest group contains Portugal, Denmark and Norway. France face Romania, while Germany meet Turkey. Scotland are with Spain and the Czech Republic while Italy and Serbia provide a stern test for Northern Ireland. Group E includes Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Hungary.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The unemployment rate in Switzerland rose in January to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent in December 2009, but the figure was lower than many analysts predicted. The increase over a year earlier was 36.9 percent. Positive signs are that the number of jobs vacant rose by more than 1,700 and November figures for partial unemployment, the latest available, show fewer companies turning to this temporary solution.
Twiddling their thumbs: Alinghi and BMW Oracle wait for the America's Cup race to start (photo: ©2010 Gilles Martin-Raget/BMW Oracle)
Valencia, Spain (GenevaLunch) – The America’s Cup sailing race, scheduled to begin Monday morning 8 February at 10:06, was postponed due to too little wind. By 10:20 the wind was rising from the southwest, but the tall masts of the two catamarans scheduled to race were forced to wait to show off their prowess. The world’s arguably most prestigious international racing cup pits Geneva-based Alinghi against San Francisco’s BMW Oracle.
The two have been sparring for months in courtrooms and now they move onto the water for the real battle, where new technology promises to be a key feature. The three-day fight for the cup is likely to be less gripping, notes Swiss television TSR, than the last America’s Cup in 2007. It lasted three months and had several participants, but which also was a tight and dramatic race between Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand.
The races can be followed live on the America’s Cup site and TSR online. Both teams are using Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to promote the race.
The race consists of:
the best of 3 races, as specified in the “Deed of Gift”, official founding document for the competition
• Race 1: Upwind-downwind 20 miles per leg
• Race 2: 39 nautical-mile equilateral triangle, first leg
• Race 3 (if necessary): Upwind-downwind 20 miles per leg.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Alinghi, BMW Oracle
Miami, Florida (GenevaLunch) – Some said it was a ragtag team of losers, but those voices died down when New Orleans won the Super Bowl for the first time in the US football game’s history. The Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts for the National Football League (NFL) title, 31-17. Drew Brees was named Most Valuable Player. The Shreveport Times celebrated with a “Won dat Supa Beauxl” headline and Ad Age celebrated by offering the public all the ads from the game as videos online.
Links to other sites: Ad Age, Super Bowl ads, Reuters, Shreveport Times,
Sion, canton Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 21-year-old Vaud man had the “extraordinary” chance to survive 17 hours after he was trapped by an avalanche near Evolene, say Valais police. He was conscious and suffered only mild hypothermia when he was found.
He was caught Saturday while skiing off-piste, but police point out that he was only 50cm under the surface, and a small amount of air passed through to the space he was able to free in front of his face. His family alerted police at 16:30 when he didn’t return, and a search team found an avalanche 50 metres wide and 150m long with a skier’s tracks that suddenly ran out under the avalanche, in the pas d’Arpilles area. They had to call off the search an hour after midnight, for safety reasons, then started again at dawn.
An Air Glacier helicopter flying over the avalanche as part of the search noticed that the snow appeared to be moving in one area, and searchers were able to dig him out there.
Stamford Bridge, London (GenevaLunch) - Chelsea took back the leadership of the Premier League as Didier Drogba scored twice to beat their local rivals 2-0. It was the second consecutive loss for the Gunners, following on the 3-0 loss to Manchester United last weekend. Man United briefly topped the table after crushing Portsmouth 5-0 with the help of two or three own goals by the unfortunate visitors, currently on the brink of bankruptcy. Liverpool won their deby match against Everton 1-0 to reclaim 4th place while Spurs played out a 0-0 draw against Aston Villa and Man City lost at Hull.
Barcelona maintained a five point lead in La Liga after beating Getafe 2-1 while arch rivals Real Madrid won 3-0 against RCD Espanyol.
Links to other sites: Premier League, La Liga
Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Scotland (GenevaLunch) - France turned on the power as they crushed Scotland at Murrayfield. The French forwards dominated the scrums but the killer blows came from outside centre Mathieu Bastareaud who scored two tries to signal his return from disgrace after falsely claiming to have been attacked during the French team’s tour to New Zealand. He actually injured himself while drunk. The 9-18 scoreline did not do justice to the degree of superiority the French team displayed. Their next game is in Paris against Ireland, who were much less convincing in their win over Italy. England beat Wales in the centenary match at Twickenham.
Links to other sites: Planet Rugby
Twickenham, London, England (GenevaLunch) - England celebrated the centenary of the famed Twickenham ground with the same result as in the first match: a victory over Wales. The single player most responsible for the result was the Welsh second row forward Alun Wyn Jones who was given a yellow card for tripping the English hooker Dylan Hartley. While he was off the field for 10 minutes England scored 17 points.
England dominated possession in the first half, taking advantage of the vulnerable Welsh line-out, but were held to 3-3 until the 35th minute. Wales fought hard to come back from the 20-3 deficit and threatened to take the lead after a fine try by James Hook.
Oracle vs Alinghi
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Wind turbine, Saint Brais, Jura, Switzerland (photo: ©2010, Suisse Eole)
Geneva, Switzerland (Geneva Lunch) - New wind turbines at Saint-Brais, canton Jura, will raise Switzerland’s total annual renewable energy power production to 17.5 MW, according to Suisse Eole, the Swiss wind energy promotion association. Switzerland has a limited number of wind turbines, but the Jura wind park is the first in the country to be financed by a broad citizen base: some 600 private investors are behind the two 2 MW turbines. Suisse Eole predicts an increase of 200 MW of power by 2015.
By 2030 wind farming in Switzerland could provide 2.5 percent of the national electricity supply, and by 2050 that figure will jump to 7 percent, the group says.
The figures show the promise of wind production in Switzerland, although newly published international figures indicate that Switzerland is unlikely to match some other European countries’ adoption of wind power.
A1 heading into Lausanne, from Morges, three lanes as a temporary measure, January 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The problem of congested roads in regions where some of Switzerland’s worst traffic jams occur inched closer to a solution Friday, when a commission of the Swiss upper house of Parliament agreed to modify regulations governing how certain national road funds are spent.
The commission had asked for a report on how cantons would help fund projects in congested road areas, such as the stretch of A1 autoroute between Versoix and Geneva, and the A1/A9 roads around Lausanne, which routinely have heavy traffic buildups. The problems are expected to worsen in the next 10 years, with the Lake Geneva region one of the fastest growing in Switzerland.
Zurich International Airport, dusk 4 February 2010
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss International Airlines will fly non-stop six times a week between San Francisco and Zurich starting 2 June 2010, the company said Friday 5 February.
Direct flights will leave Zurich at 13:15 every day except Tuesday, when a non-direct flight will operate. The flights arrive in San Francisco at 16:30.
The non-stop flights from San Francisco will leave there at 19:25 every day except Tuesday, arriving in Zurich at 15:40.
Links to other sites: MySwitzerand national tourism office, Swiss airlines
German local government confirms new stolen data offered, Swiss president confirms Germany bought first batch
Swiss politician might consider reconsidering Swiss banking secrecy, some hint
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The saga of data stolen from Swiss banks and offered to the German government continues, with new wrinkles to the story. A German newspaper will publish an article Saturday, reports Swiss television TSR, stating that a new batch of stolen data, with 2,000 client names, is being offered to a regional German government. The government of Bade-Wurtemberg has confirmed the information.
Meanwhile, Swiss President Doris Leuthard told reporters as she came out of a meeting that Switzerland will likely ask for a copy of the first batch of stolen data. Switzerland did the same with data stolen from a Geneva branch of British bank HSBC and sold to the French government. The data will allow Switzerland to see if requests for judicial assistance from France, and perhaps now from Germany, are based on information obtained from the stolen files. If this is the case, Switzerland will refuse to provide assistance because of the illegal source of the information.
Switzerland and Germany have confirmed this week that they are slowly, steadily continuing to negotiate a new bilateral double taxation agreement.
One of the results of this, according to Le Temps newspaper, is that the question of the viability of Swiss banking secrecy is no longer a taboo political issue.
Thieves to be prosecuted once identity known
Bluefin tuna: A dying school © 2009 Brian J Skerry, National Geographic Stock, WWF
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A complete ban on the trade and commercialization of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna is to be discussed by the 175 member countries of Cites that meet in Doha in March, according to a statement by the group Friday 5 February. Cites is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Monaco proposed last 14 October that the bluefin tuna be added to Annex 1 of the Cites most endangered species list, effectively ending its legal exploitation.
Not the chalet in Verbier, this one
Verbier, canton Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Tourists have been the victims of a scam where they paid for a non-existent chalet in the Valais ski resort of Verbier, according to the canton’s police. The scam consists in transferring money to a bank account only to find on arrival in Verbier that the chalet does not exist. Several people have complained to the Valais police, who have responded by giving some tips to would-be renters. They explain that little can be done about a scam after the fact.
The chalet was advertised on a site that has since been dismantled.
