Swiss wages up
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Markets let the Swiss franc slip slightly Wednesday 14 December while awaiting news from the Swiss National Bank 15 December, which will share its monetary policy assessment in the morning.
Some analysts are predicting the central bank will raise the cap from CHF1.20 to the euro to CHF1.25 or higher, to help exporters. Others are insisting the SNB will not budge from the CHF1.20 mark and yet others are speculating that interest rates, at historic lows, will move into the negative.
2010 saw Swiss companies investing more abroad, foreign investors slowing their capital inflows
The SNB Tuesday 13 December published its 2010 direct investment and Swiss international investment position reports, where it made it clear that the continuing high franc was already taking its toll on investments last year. Swiss companies invested more abroad while foreign direct investors in Switzerland showed a 32 percent drop in capital inflows.
European construction growth "restrained" says Holcim
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The picture of the Swiss economy at the end of the third quarter 2011 is mixed, with some companies suffering badly from the overvalued Swiss franc while others appear to be sailing through the year relatively smoothly. This week’s results of financial results continues to feed the mix.
Swisscom shows net revenues down by 4.9 percent to CHF8.54 billion but net income up by 8.4 percent to CHF1.53b and it says the forecast for 2011 remains unchanged. “The 8.4% increase in net income to CHF 1,528 million is attributable to a provision booked in the previous year for VAT proceedings against Fastweb and a one-off amount which Fastweb will receive and which was booked in the third quarter of 2011 in settlement of a lawsuit.”
The telecommunications company notes that it created 400 fulltime equivalent jobs in Switzerland in 2011.
Holcim, Switzerland’s cement and construction multinational says that while construction grew briskly in emerging markets, it was “restrained” in North America and the eurozone. “Consolidated net sales decreased by 6.7 percent to CHF 15.5 billion, mainly because of exchange rate factors. On a like-for-like basis, it rose by 5.8 percent.” European results were affected by “the still outstanding sales of CO2 certificates”, but growth should remain steady in the region, the company says. “In the US, the ongoing insufficient demand for construction materials and the stabilization of prices at a low level both impacted results” but Holcim argues that its lean cost structure places it well to benefit from recovery when these markets improve.
Nestle goes full speed in 2010
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Net profit at multinational Nestle saw a 7.5% increase and a sales increase of 6.1% during the first half of 2010.
The Vevey-based company – the world’s biggest food and beverage group, is set to eclipse rivals Unilever and Kraft.
Organic growth for all Food and Beverages operations was 5.3% in the Americas, 3.6% in Europe and 10.4% in Asia, Oceania and Africa.
The Group’s emerging markets continued to achieve over 10% organic growth.
Full report: Nestle.
Scissors award 2008 for biggest salary spread: ABB
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The salary spread between the lowest-paid worker and a member of the board in Swiss companies has increased 72 percent since 2002. While ordinary workers’ salaries have increased 8.4 percent during this seven-year period, the average board member’s pay has gone up 83 percent.
The figures were relased by Travail.Suisse Monday 15 July. They are the result of the fifth survey it has carried out of 27 Swiss corporate groups’ pay packages.
Travail.Suisse is an independent association that represents the interests of workers. It gave its annual award for the greatest spread in salaries to ABB at a press conference in Bern 15 June and called on the government to heed public cries to stop what it calls “indecent” salaries for top managers and board members.
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
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - PublicGroupe, based in Vaud and parent to the advertising company Publicitas, has posted a loss for 2008 of CHF42.1 million despite positive opreating results, a sharp turn-around from its 2007 profit of CHF73.1 million. The overall loss is explained largely by two significant losses: goodwill writeoffs of CHF33.8m, the bulk of which were in the media sales division, and financial market losses of CHF44.7m on its 19.9% share in media publisher Edipresse and 1.4% share in Tamedia. Edipresse has had an exclusive advertising sales agreement with Publicitas which ends in December 2009. Edipresse is being bought out by Tamedia.
Lausanne, Switzerland (romandie/ats and 24 Heures, Fre) – The downturn in the Swiss mass media market continues, with the announcement, 23 February, of January figures for ad sales, on which media depend for the bulk of their revenues: down 8.7% compared to January 2007, to CHF249.5 million. Edipresse, the Lake Geneva region’s largest media publisher, announced it will lay off 25 staff, representing 16.5 fulltime equivalent jobs, at its Bussigny printing operation, at least in part because of fewer advertising inserts.
Lord Saatchi, in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two questions on everyone’s lips at a press conference in Geneva with Maurice Saatchi 17 February were why open an ad agency now, and why in Geneva, given the morose advertising market and the unhappy state of affairs of the banking industry. Saatchi has been one of the advertising world’s best-known names for the past 30 or more years. He was in Geneva to help open his group’s newest agency, and his visit signaled what could be the start of a new approach to advertising in the area, with “simplicity” as the key word.
Nestle profits up
Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Nestlé has announced net profits of CHF18 billion, a 69.4% increase over 2007. Consoliated sales for the year were CHF 110b, of which CHF102b were in the food and beverage arm of the business. The company says its very strong growth has allowed it to continue its three-year CHF25 billion share buyback programme.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss trade balance in January was positive, CHF2 billion, but it continued its “downward spiral,” the federal government in Bern announced Thursday 19 February. Trade with the European Union in particular suffered, with flat trade, both imports and exports.
Bern, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – The USS, Swiss unions association, is warning that the country will have 10,000 more young people on the unemployment books by 2010, noting that half of the country’s young who do not yet have jobs are not even registered.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The nearly CHF1 billion loss in 2008 that Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies, announced earlier is being confirmed today, 19 February, with the company’s new CEO Stefan Lippe presenting the final, audited results: CHF884 million in the red, with CHF170m of the loss coming in the fourth quarter alone.
