Working on the Ricola gardens - Photo Ricola
Laufon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sales at the Swiss herb drops maker Ricola, a family-owned company, rose 3.6 percent to CHF316.3 million. The company announced that business grew in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the US in 2009.
Ricola was established in 1930 by Emil Richterich, and it is currently is now managed by Felix Richterich, son of Hans Peter and grandson of the founder.
The world leader of herb candies exports its products to more than 50 countries worldwide.
The privately held company does not publish its profits.
The Swiss national team
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss football team is down one man due to injury. The Swiss football federation announced Christoph Spycher’s knee injury is preventing him from playing at the World Cup.
Spycher had planned to retire after the world championship but his injury is forcing him into early retirement.
The defender will be replaced by Ludovic Magnin who is recuperating from a broken hand. According to the Swiss coach, Magnin will wear a cast during training camp which begins on 25 May.
Switzerland will play Costa Rica on 1 June in Sion, and Italy in Geneva on 5 June as part of its pre-World Cup training.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world’s largest reinsurance company, Swiss Re, has posted a first quarter 2009 profit of CHF150 million, down dramatically (76 percent) compared to Q1 2008, but a significant turnaround from the company’s billion franc loss in 2008.
Geneva, Switzerland (TSR, Le Temps) – The announcement by US President Barack Obama to eliminate tax loop holes used by US multinational firms with operations abroad is sparking reactions in Switzerland where companies such as Dow Chemical, General Motors, Philip Morris, and Procter & Gamble have set up their operations.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UBS is reporting in a webcast 6 May that its loss for the first quarter of 2009 is CHF2 billion.
Net outflows of new money for its Global Asset Management business have slowed, the bank reports, to CHF7.7 billion.
The loss is attributed mainly to risk business that the bank has left or is in the process of leaving. UBS live webcast, 09:00
Related, Le Temps (Fre)
Elbikon, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Swiss elevator (lift) company Schindler is laying off 36 people and turning to a common Swiss economic downturn solution, partial employment, the Lucerne-based company announced 28 April, Tuesday.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – Palexpo, Geneva’s congress and exhibition centre, has asked for building permits to start a project to modernize its complex, including installations, at a cost of CHF100 million. The project, if approved, will take five years. Details of the project, Palexpo, Fre
Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Computer peripherals manufacturer Logitech, long proud of double-digit quarterly increases in profits, posted one of its worst results in years Thursday 23 April, showing a fourth quarter fiscal year 2009 loss of $35 million. A year earlier the company’s net income was $60.3. The company’s fiscal year ends 31 March. Poor sales, down 32 percent for the year, were blamed.
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – The Swiss government has charged the Police and Justice Department with drawing up the legal framework for online gambling, which would provide for 5-10 licences, making Internet gambling legal in Switzerland. Legal gambling is expected to bring in anywhere from CHF1 to 26 million in tax revenue. Online gambling, while illegal, has clearly been growing and is estimated at CHF115-139 m. A key rationale for legalizing it is to ensure that income from it does not escape Swiss tax authorities.
La Poste, letter sorting
Web stamps, a recent product for Swiss letters
Bern,Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Private delivery companies will be able to deliver letters over 50 grams starting 1 July 2009. The Swiss Federal Council 22 April gave its approval to the change, thus opening up 25 percent of the postal system to private competition.
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Sales at multinational Nestlé, based in Vevey, slipped by 2.1 percent to CHF25.2 billion and organic growth was 3.8 percent, down from 10 percent in 2008. The company says the results are in line with forecasts and confirm expected full-year results for 2009. Sales were pulled down by acquisitions, -0.7 percent, and the strength of the Swiss franc, with a negative 5.7 percent impact.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, has sold back its Brazilian financial investment company UBS Pactual to the group’s founders, BGT, for $2.5 billion, virtually the same price it paid for the company in 2006. UBS says the sale is in line with its plans to reduce its risk profile and strengthen its assets. The sale increases the Swiss bank’s tier 1 capital by CHF1.3 billion, decreases risk-weighted assets by CHF3b, and it reduces total assets by CHF6.3b.
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.
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – The Swiss postal system, La Poste, will be reviewing 420 post offices, mainly in villages but some in cities, to determine if they should remain open or revise the services they offer. The list is available at www.poste.ch/listedessites. More than one-third are in French-speaking Switzerland, some 150 post offices.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s consumer watchdog, popularly known as Mr Price, received 1,281 complaints in 2008, with the largest number about hikes in electricity and medicine costs. These were followed by complaints about customs duties, telecommunications rates, water and waste charges.
Updated 22:00 with links on reactions Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UBS shareholders meet today, 15 April, to approve the new governing board of the bank at the annual general meeting (AGM). Before the doors opened the bank had made a pre-announcement that first quarter 2009 losses amount to nearly CHF2 billion and that it will cut 8,700 jobs, for a global workforce that will be reduced to 67,500 in 2010. Nearly one-third of the bank’s employees are in Switzerland and 2,500 of the job cuts will be in Switzerland, with 1,200-1,500 of them through layoffs. UBS says it expects to cut costs by CHF3.5 to 4 billion by the end of 2010, compared to 2008 costs.
New York, USA (GenevaLunch) – Charges dating back to 2002 against a number of companies who are accused of helping the old South African government to maintain apartheid can go ahead, a judged in New York ruled Thursday 9 April, but charges were dropped against Swiss bank UBS and Barclays of the UK, as well as electronics company Fujitsu. The judge dismissed charges against them, saying, “Corporate defendants accused of merely doing business with the apartheid government of South Africa have been dismissed.”
Philipp Hildebrand
Thomas Jordan
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Philipp Hildrebrand, age 46, 8 April was named chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), effective 2010, taking charge at that point of the SNB’s Department I, with responsibility for economic affairs, international affairs, legal and property services, and support functions. He will take over from Jean-Pierre Roth, who retires at the end of 2009. Thomas Jordan, also 46, was named vice-chairman. A new member of the Board has been named: Jean-Pierre Danthine, from Vaud, who heads the Swiss Finance Institute.
Updated 10 April 13:10 London, England and Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Mars has become the latest chocolate maker to go green with its products, making a commitment ” to spend tens of millions of dollars annually certifying that the cocoa used in the $10bn of chocolate products it sells every year is sustainably sourced by 2020,” reports the Financial Times. Mars claims to be the world’s largest end-user of chocolate. The company joins Cadbury (whose European head office is in Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland), the largest chewing gum and sweets maker in the world, which has a significant chocolate business. Cadbury announced in March that it would increase direct Fair Trade buying from farmers, spending £45 million in the next 10 years to “to secure the sustainable socio-economic future of cocoa farming in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean where the cocoa farming industry is facing increasing challenges.”
Geneva, Switzerland (RSR, Fre) – RSR reports that the president of ARFEC-APG, a charity that helps families of children with cancer, is wanted by the group to answer questions about CHF1 million that appears to be missing. The man, whose name is not given by the radio station, is reported to be living in Tunisia.
ACM's new offices, Zurich, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – ACM, the world’s largest currency trader, based in Geneva, Monday announced that is opening a new office in Zurich. The announcement comes on the heels of confirmation last week that it has applied for a banking license. The company told GenevaLunch in October 2008 that it would be applying for a license, partly as a result of changes in Swiss law covering online transactions, but that it intends to maintain currency trading as its principle business.
Police visit more fuss than trouble
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – Bank accounts have been blocked in Geneva by the Swiss government in relation to the “Anglo Leasing” scandal in Kenya, which may go back more than 10 years, that involved money-laundering related to purchases of helicopters and officials’ cars, NZZ in Zurich reports. The Tribune picks up the story.
Vevey, Switzerland (RSR/ats, Fre) – Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé, told Sonntag Sunday newspaper 5 April that he expects the company to add 300 jobs in Switzerland this year. The multinational’s long-term outlook is positive, he noted, with an additional billion consumers expected in the next 10 years.
Zurich, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Werner Karlen, the CEO of Implenia, Switzerland’s largest construction company, has left after being in the job only since 1 February. The company issued a statement that he had left, by mutual agreement, to pursue a change of direction in his career, adding that both had agreed not to make any further comments.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Re will lay off 10 percent of its worldwide work force of 11,560 by the end of 2009, the company announced 2 April. The company lost CHF864 million in 2008. It also said it has appointed Agostino Galvagni, 49, as chief operating officer. He replaces Stefan Lippe, who became CEO in February 2009 when Jacques Aigrain was forced out of the post.
Boris Collardi, Bank Julius Baer
Zurich, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – The new CEO of Bank Julius Baer, Switzerland’s second largest wealth management bank with CHF338 billion under management, is from Nyon: Boris Collardi, age 34. He finished school in Nyon, began his banking career in Geneva at Credit Suisse and studied at IMD in Lausanne.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Shares in Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, fell 9.1 percent in trading Monday 30 March on news that the bank is likely to cut 8,000 jobs, more than 10 percent of its global workforce.
New York, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps and 20 Minutes/afp, Fre) – The latest financial fraud scheme to be discovered by the SEC, it reports, appears to have involved a Geneva financial group, United Trust of Switzerland, with US clients as the target and some $68 million lost in the a Ponzi scheme similar to the one created by Bernard Madoff. The bank offers only an address in the Caribbean despite its wholly-owned subsidiary, Millennium Bank, saying it has been in business since 1931.
Ultra-deepwater drillship Deepwater Discovery working off West Africa (photo: Transocean)
Updated 21:15 Geneva, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – TSR carries a video report on 10 foreign companies that have decided to move their head offices to Switzerland to date in 2009. They include Transocean, the world’s largest offshore oil drilling company, which has moved from the Caribbean to Geneva.
Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre)- Le Temps argues in a lengthy feature story Wednesday 25 March that Geneva has with the most to lose in the Lake Geneva region if Switzerland decides to harmonize its cantonal tax corporate tax laws.
