WTO in Geneva predicts slower exports in 2012
Source: WTO, Geneva, April 2012
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The high Swiss franc went higher against the dollar Wednesday 11 April, as it “appreciated against 11 of 16 major peers”, Bloomberg reported late 11 April, noting that “strengthened against the dollar after the country sold bonds amid demand for its assets as a refuge from the euro region’s debt crisis.”
Thursday the exchange rate was $1.09/CHF1, with the dollar up from a January low of $1.04, but down from late January.
Roche Pharmaceuticals says it is being hurt by the strong franc, with sales dipping 1 percent in the first quarter of the year, but up 2 percent if the franc is taken out of the calculation. The company hinted it might raise its hostile bid for US drug company Illumina if the latter enters negotiations.
Swatch Group, riding on the continuing wave of success of the Swiss watch industry despite the high franc, announced 12 April that it is buying supplier Simon Et Membrez SA in Delémont, a family business founded in 1975 that now has 250 employees. In addition, Swatch Group is acquiring a related 60 percent holding in Termiboîtes SA (case polishing) in Courtemaîche, with 50 employees.
“Simon Et Membrez SA is a seamless fit alongside the existing Swatch Group production companies and logically complements Comadur, Ruedin and Lascor, the companies active in the production of watch casings within the Swatch Group,’ says Swatch. Simon Et Membrez SA manufactures high quality watch cases for the top price segment out of precious materials such as gold, titanium, platinum, palladium and premium-quality steels. Swatch Group has a long-standing business relationship with Simon Et Membrez SA for a number of its watch brands (Breguet, Blancpain). Simon Et Membrez SA will continue to supply third parties.”
Shock waves from sovereign debt crisis will ripple through trade world in 2012
In other business news Thursday the World Trade Organization in Geneva says growth in exports will continue to slow down in 2012, mainly as the result of a series of shocks such as Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. “World trade expanded in 2011 by 5.0 percent, a sharp deceleration from the 2010 rebound of 13.8 percent, and growth will slow further still to 3.7 percent in 2012, WTO economists project,” the organization says.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Business highlights Wednesday 4 April include:
- Iata, the airline industry organization, says that traffic increased in February, up 8.6 percent for passenger traffic and 5.2 percent for cargo, but it cautions that with petrol prices rising the outlook remains fragile.
- Coty, American beauty company that also owns a number of top clothing brands such as Jill Sander and Adidas, is turning its Versoix office, opened in 2005, into a third international head office, just as the company announced its proposal to buy out Avon, a deal worth $10 billion. The Geneva office the company says in a press release, “will complement Coty headquarters activities in New York, US, and Paris, France.With a goal of further developing cross-divisional and joint headquarters collaboration among Coty professionals, the Geneva office forms a third component in Coty’s corporate headquarters structure. It includes a state-of-the-art research and development group linked to a fragrance center of excellence, global and regional commercial teams for Coty beauty and Coty prestige divisions, procurement and supply chain operations, and a regional Northern European finance center.”
- LeShop published its first quarter results Wednesday, showing a first-ever dip in sales, down 7 percent compared to the previous year: CHF38.5 million. The company notes that sales nevertheless remain strong despite the strong Swiss franc, which is responsible for cross-border shopping tourism. Mobile phones sales continue to grow strongly, up 12 percent, and they now accoount for one in eight purchases.
- Solar Impulse is warming up for a 2,500km solar-powered-only flight to Morocco in May or June, its first venture beyond Europe and over a large body of water, the Mediterranean. The trip will coincide “with the launch of construction in the region of Ouarzazate of the largest thermo-solar power plant ever built.” It will serve as the warmup for a planned 2014 round the world trip using only solar power.
- Roche, Basel-based pharmaceutical company, says it is “very disappointed” by the refusal of the board of Illumina to accept a higher buyout bid and it is now turning to shareholders to ask them to voter 18 April for the takeover.
New BIS Secretary General Wayne Byres
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss business news is dominated this week by Roche’s glum third quarter earnings, which the company attributes to the strong franc. Sulzer, however, announced Friday 14 October that new orders are up strongly despite the franc while Syngenta shows increased sales.
Q3 financial results in
Basel-based pharmaceutical giant Roche saw its sales fall by 14 percent year-on-year at the end of the third quarter 2011: down from $28.4 billion to $24.4b.
Agrochemical firm Syngenta, also based in Basel, published its third quarter figures Friday, showing a 13 percent increase in sales, year-on-year, to CHF9.3 billion.
Industrial machinery firm Sulzer, based in Winterthur, says its new orders are up 8.2 percent to CHF2.65 billion, but that the impact of financial markets is starting to be felt in new orders and the fourth quarter is expected to be slower. “The strong Swiss franc had a significant negative translation effect on absolute figures, but the company’s global presence is a natural hedge against material impacts on profitability”, the company notes in a statement issued Friday.
Banks’ bankers get new head
The Bank for International Settlements announced 13 October that Australian Wayne Byres will be its next secretary general. Byres is an executive general manager of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), with responsibility for the supervision of large complex banks in APRA, a post he has held for the past seven years. He was earlier a senior manager in the bank supervision department at the Reserve Bank of Australia. The BIS says he will also take over as chair of the Committee’s Policy Development Group (PDG).
The BIS faces the difficult task of overseeing the new capital ratios and more that are part of Basel III, a global regulatory framework for the banking system.
Poker didn’t pay off
The Tribune de Geneve reports this week that judicial authorities in Geneva have blocked the bank accounts of 10 Americans suspected of hiding their online poker haul in the canton’s banks. A reported CHF18 million in the accounts of the founders or organizers of Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars and Absolute Poker are under investigation, according to the paper.
Chappatte cartoon from 2009: 2010 didn't see an improvement in revenues (©2011 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.)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – GenevaLunch is on a slow-news holiday schedule for the next two weeks, but to make sure you don’t miss key reports we’re bringing you highlights from some of the news beats, with links to original sources:
EPFL plays key role in understanding Deepwater Horizon oil spill
EPFL is playing a key role in understanding how the properties of hydrocarbons are important in understanding the wellhead structure and pollution diffusion—how pollution spreads out—in the depths.
EPFL notes in a press release: “The main problem was the depth of the well, nearly 1,500 meters below the sea surface. It was a configuration that had never been tried before, and the pollution it unleashed after methane gas shot to the surface and ignited in a fiery explosion is also unequalled. Much research has been done since the spill on the effects on marine life at the ocean’s surface and in coastal regions. Now, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) professor Samuel Arey and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute reveal in the advance online edition of Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences how escaped crude oil and gas behave in the deep water environment.”
Swiss pharma industry has good second quarter 2011
Novartis‘s second quarter results, announced 19 July, were strong: Net sales grew 27 percent (up 19 percent in constant currencies) to $14.9 billion. The Basel pharmaceutical company says four drugs received approvals: the US FDA approved Afinitor for advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and Arcapta Neohaler for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the European Union granted approval for Lucentis in retinal vein occlusion and for hypertension medicine Rasilamlo. The company’s shares rose 3.15 percent Tuesday as a result, reports Le Temps (registration).
Roche is buying mtm laboratories AG (mtm), a privately-held company based in Heidelberg, Germany, the Basel pharma company announced 19 July, for CHF160 million up front and another CHF90m when agreed milestones are met: “mtm is a global leader in developing in vitro diagnostics with a focus on early detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer, the largest early detection market in oncology.”
Swiss media ads down sharply in June
Advertising revenue for Swiss media continues to fall, with June income down 6.5 percent overall from a year earlier to CHF132.3 million, show figures published 19 July by Remp, the industry research arm, reported in Le Temps. Worst hit was the economic and financial press, down nearly 23 percent, with revenues of CHF3.7m. Revenues for daily papers, which account for about half of all media advertising income, was down 8.9 percent. Sunday papers were a rare exception, with revenues inching up by 2.8 percent over a year earlier, to CHF11.8m.
Internet use continues to grow, with a report in mid-July showing that 80 percent of the population surveyed using the Internet several times a week and 67 percent daily, reports Cominmag.
Switzerland’s tallest building will be white stacked layers
Planned entrance, Building 1, Roche in Basel (©Herzog & de Meuron, reproduced with permission)
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have put the finishing touches on plans for pharmaceutical company Roche‘s new Building 1 (Bau 1 in German) centre in Basel.
The plans were first presented to the public in 2006 but have undergone several changes and the latest drawings, showing a more neatly aligned angled side, were released in December.
The final version is now waiting for approval by the city of Basel.
Basel skyline, with proposed new Roche tower (©Herzog & de Meuron, reproduced with permission)
A Roche spokesperson told GenevaLunch that if all goes well the company hopes to have the building permit by the end of January and construction can begin soon after the permit is issued.
Company will cut back 8,400 jobs in two years for $2.4b annual savings
Hundreds laid off - Photo Roche
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roche has been true to its word earlier this year that it would make “significant” job cuts after setbacks in its drug business: Wednesday morning 17 November the company said that it is cutting back 6 percent of its workforce.
“Operation Excellence”, as the restructuring programme is being called, will cost the company CHF2.7 billion a year for 2010 and 2011, but starting in 2011 it should bring savings of CHF1.8b and, from 2012 on, the company expects to save CHF2.4b a year.
The bulk of the 8,400 jobs to be cut are in the US, 3,500, with 1,300 in Europe and 770 in Switzerland. The rest are spread throughout the world. The most strongly touched area is the pharmaceutical division, in particular production and sales.
The company announced stable sales in October, for the end of its first three quarters.
Links to other sites: Roche press release, Financial Times background story, TSR (Fre)
Roche head office, Basel
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Pharmaceutical multinational Roche says its turnover fell by 22 percent in 2009 compared to 2008 due to charges linked to its purchase of US company Genentech. Operating profits rose by 14 percent before the exceptional charges, however, and the company had record sales, up 10 percent to CHF49.1 billion.
Update 01:00 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An accident involving a person on the rails near Roche-Aigle in canton Vaud stopped most train traffic between Martigny and Sion late Saturday night, according to a 21:45 CFF notice. Several trains were cancelled: update – service has been resumed. Link to CFF alerts
Only by prescription in South Korea © 2009 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss drug giant Roche confirmed Friday, 6 November, it was under investigation by the South Korean Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for illegally helping British bank HSBC and other companies in South Korea to acquire the drug tamiflu. The FDA raided the local offices of Roche 4 November and seized documents and computer files. It is illegal to purchase tamiflu in South Korea without a medical prescription.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Pharmaceuticals multinational Roche reports sales for the first nine months of 2009 up 11 percent in local currencies and 9 percent in Swiss francs, with both its pharmaceutical and diagnostics divisions outperforming the market, the company says. Sales rose by CHF3.1 billion to 36.4 billion. The company has revised upwards its forecast for growth in 2009, to “at least high single-digit full-year sales growth for [the] pharmaceuticals division; full-year 2009 sales in both divisions expected to grow well ahead of market.”
© Roche
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Basel-based Hoffman-La Roche, Roche, announced improved sales of CHF 2 billion to CHF24bn in the first half of the year, and earnings per share (EPS) up 10 percent in Swiss francs. Sales of both Roche divisions did well: the pharmaceutical division sales grew 11 percent, while sales in the diagnostics division were up three percent in Swiss franc terms, twice as much as the industry average, the company announced (pdf).
Geneva, Switzerland and Mumbai, India (Financial Times) – Cipla, a company based in Mumbai, India, is shipping a quantity of its generic drug Antiflu, which replicates Basel-based Roche’s Tamiflu, to Mexico. The WHO has said this week that Antiflu is efffective against swine flu (A(H1N1). The Indian drug sells for about two-thirds the price of Tamiflu’s price for poor countries and half the price that Roche sets for Tamiflu in wealthier countries.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Pharmaceutical company Roche is increasing its production of Tamiflu, one of two antivirals that appear to be effective against swine flu, A(H1N1), which is a new strain of flu virus type A. The company announced 12 May that it is also donating 5.65 million courses of treatment to the WHO (World Health Organization) as part of the organization’s phase 5 call for governments to step up preparations for a possible pandemic. The WHO’s official figures now show that 5,251 people have contracted the disease and 61 people have died, in four countries.
Basel, Switzerland (Genevalunch) – Roche Pharmaceuticals sales increased 7 percent (8 in local currencies) to CHF11.6 billion during the first quarter of 2009, indicating a good recovery from 2008 when company shares took their biggest dive in 11 years. The improvement was due mainly to strong sales of cancer treatment products.
Roche's headquarters in Basel
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roche and Genentech have reached a friendly agreement for the Basel-based pharmaceutical giant to pay $46.8 billion for the 44% of the US company it does not own. The expiration date for the new $95 a share offer is 25 March 2009.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roche has increased its offer for shares in US company Genentech to $93, from $86.50 and is giving shareholders an extra week to consider the new offer, in order to bring the disputed takeover to a close.
Basel and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Reuters reports that Swiss pharma giant Roche might raise the price it is offering for US biotech company Genentech from $42 billion, or $86.50 a share, which the American firm has recommended to shareholders to reject.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Markets reacted with disappointment to Pharmaceutical giant Roche’s 2008 results, published 4 February. The group’s earnings fell by 5% due to a strong Swiss franc and lower net financial income, despite group sales rising by 10% in local currencies and group profits up 4% in local currencies, to CHF13.9 billion.
