Switzerland

Unilever and Nestlé offer two flavours of India

2 May 2024

Weak rural demand ate into earnings at the $63 bln local unit of the Dove soap maker. By contrast, its smaller and more-richly valued Swiss rival grew profit thanks to a larger share of urban customers. The divergent fortunes point to the limits of the Indian consumer’s wallet.

Swiss too-big-to-fail rules are too timid to work

10 Apr 2024

Following the Credit Suisse disaster, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter will give the country’s bank regulator more teeth and raise capital requirements for $100 bln UBS. It all helps. However, there’s no sign authorities will be any more willing to wind down a big bank.

Sergio Ermotti has a path to Wall Street-style pay

28 Mar 2024

UBS handed its CEO $16 mln for nine months’ work last year. That’s more than his European rivals, but less than the bosses of US lenders like Morgan Stanley, whose valuation the $100 bln Swiss bank aspires to. Tweaked terms next year give Ermotti a chance to narrow the gap.

Europe’s IPO window opens slowly for buyout barons

28 Mar 2024

CVC floated beauty retailer Douglas, whose shares fell, while EQT received a warmer welcome for skincare group Galderma. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain how to interpret the mixed message for private equity groups sitting on $3 trln of unsold assets.

Big banks’ shock absorbers are still far too slim

26 Mar 2024

Credit Suisse and a string of US regional banks failed last year. In this Exchange podcast, Stanford Professor Anat Admati argues that lenders’ equity buffers are punier than they seem – and that fixing the problem needn’t cause a credit crunch.

European private equity IPO door is only half open

22 Mar 2024

Buyout firms tested the market with cautious pricing for two beauty companies’ listings. Although Galderma performed, Douglas’s debt pile spooked investors. For sellers sitting on $3 trln of unsold assets the message is clear: discounts work, but only for healthy businesses.

Bank crises proved a mixed blessing for rivals

21 Mar 2024

It’s 12 months since Silicon Valley Bank failed and Credit Suisse collapsed into the arms of UBS. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain how bigger banks gorged on these lenders’ carcasses – and how the system’s underlying weaknesses have not gone away.

Swisscom’s Italy foray works best as a first step

15 Mar 2024

The $30 bln Alpine telco predicts 600 mln euros of annual savings from its 8 bln euro Vodafone Italia buy. Yet investors don’t yet seem to be assuming a big windfall. Revamping mobile services in the highly competitive Italian market to drive returns requires further M&A.

Credit Suisse carcass feeds many hungry mouths

15 Mar 2024

In the year since it collapsed, competitors have carved up the Swiss bank’s employees and clients. UBS grabbed most of the spoils, but Santander, Deutsche Bank and others have also moved in. Lasting benefits, though, depend on survivors showing restraint when activity picks up.

Galderma IPO offers EQT a temporary facelift

6 Mar 2024

The Swiss skin care group is looking to raise $2 bln in a listing to cut debt. At $22 bln, in line with L’Oréal’s valuation, its private equity owners could get decent returns. But with the French beauty giant growing similar products faster, retaining margins may be challenging.

Vodafone’s Italy exit puts speed before valuation

28 Feb 2024

The UK telco looks poised to sell its hard-pressed local business to Swisscom for 8 bln euros in cash. The price tag is lower than a previous Iliad offer. But it’s a cleaner exit, and advances boss Margherita Della Valle’s goal of prompt M&A to make her company less sprawling.

Investors are yet to fully embrace UBS’s promise

6 Feb 2024

The $93 bln Swiss bank is restarting dividends and share buybacks after delivering 30% of total planned cost savings from the Credit Suisse merger in 2023. Yet investors don’t seem fully convinced it will hit its returns targets. Speeding up the integration this year would help.

Julius Baer pops myth of private bank prudence

1 Feb 2024

CEO Philipp Rickenbacher is leaving the $12 bln Swiss wealth manager after bad lending led to a $700 mln writedown. It’s a reminder that serving rich clients is not risk-free. Money managers will have to provide more clarity on loan books or give up lucrative but dicey practices.

Holcim split cements deglobalisation trend

29 Jan 2024

The $43 bln Swiss building materials giant is separating its fast-growing North American arm from its remaining operations in an attempt to unlock value. The striking thing is that investors appear to view Holcim’s global scale as a brake on value, rather than a driver of it.

Davos holds up funhouse mirror to shifting world

22 Jan 2024

Delegates from the Middle East and India made a splash at last week’s World Economic Forum, reflecting their wealth and investment appeal. Europeans and Chinese were subdued. Big Tech looks the winner from AI. This year’s Swiss conflab arguably exaggerated more than it distorted.

Time for EU to assist its solar panel industry

17 Jan 2024

Meyer Burger’s stock tanked 35% after it threatened to shut Europe’s biggest photovoltaic plant unless it gets German incentives. Stuck between US subsidies and cheap Chinese products, continental players are weak. Turning support for fossil fuels into green aid would help.

The spectre of Donald Trump hangs over Davos

12 Jan 2024

The former US president is not among the 2,800 business and political leaders converging on the Swiss resort. But his possible return to power will pervade debates about Ukraine, China, and climate change. In 2016, Davos laughed off the idea of a Trump presidency. Not this time.

Mega-bank M&A goes from impossible to imaginable

28 Dec 2023

After 2008, CEOs saw investment-bank deals as risky while regulators saw them as dangerous. UBS will prove otherwise if it safely and profitably absorbs Credit Suisse. Imitators will not get the same sweet deal, but targets like SocGen and Barclays at least come cheap.

Swiss pharma mega-deal has healthy prognosis

19 Dec 2023

In 2001 Novartis took a stake in Roche, yet a deal never happened. Over two decades later, the mooted acquirer is stronger and could gain from vast synergies and more heft in oncology. Making the $440 bln union a reality means overcoming family pride, and antitrust issues.

Glencore’s split is yet to be copper-bottomed

6 Dec 2023

Having merged its coal assets with Canadian miner Teck’s, the $70 bln Swiss group is eyeing a spinoff. But boss Gary Nagle faces a tricky call on what to do with oil trading. And the appeal of a coal-clean metals split may hinge on whether Teck’s own separation creates value.