Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Switzerland is the global leader in metal recycling, a lucrative business that attracts international interest. We visit a pioneering Swiss waste disposal and recycling plant with a delegation from Japan. Thomas Kern was born in Switzerland in 1965. Trained as a photographer in Zürich, he started working as a photojournalist in 1989. He was a founder of the Swiss photographers agency Lookat Photos in 1990. Thomas Kern has won twice a World Press Award and has...

When Credit Suisse asked its board member Michael Klein to find capital to help its painful restructuring push, the former Citibank executive with ties in the Middle East ended up in a series of meetings with a powerful Saudi bank little known outside the Gulf. Klein, who is also taking over Credit Suisse’s spun-off investment bank, walked away with a $1.5 billion (CHF1.4 billion) cheque. As recessions deepen in the west, some are looking at the investment by the...

Keystone / Ennio Leanza Swiss cement giant Holcim said on Wednesday it would leave Russia, adding that the business there would then operate independently under a different brand. Holcim has signed an agreement to sell its Russian unit to the local management team, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The sale will have “no significant impact” on the world’s biggest cement maker, as the unit generated less than 1% of the group’s net sales in 2021, it said. Holcim...

Nestlé plans to create about 1,500 additional jobs in Ukraine. Keystone/Laurent Gillieron The Swiss multinational Nestlé says it will invest CHF40 million ($42. million) to launch a new production facility in western Ukraine. The world largest food and beverage company is one of very few international companies to announce new investments in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February. A senior Nestlé manager described it as a important move in a...

The GoldenPass Express direct line now allows passengers to travel from Montreux on Lake Geneva to Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland without changing trains. © Keystone / Peter Klaunzer Swiss Federal Railways has launched a new timetable, which offers more regional services and direct links between eastern and western Switzerland, and additional connections to popular tourist regions. From Sunday, trains run every two hours directly between Romanshorn, in canton...

Parliamentarians were split on how to divide the tax revenues © Keystone / Ti-press / Alessandro Crinari Switzerland’s 26 cantons will receive 75% of the additional revenue from the minimum taxation of large companies, the government 25%. On Tuesday the House of Representatives agreed with the Senate on the proposal to tax all companies with a turnover of more than €750 million (CHF740 million) at 15%, in line with a reform decided by the OECD and the G20. This...

Around half of retired taxpayers have gross assets of more than CHF300,000 Keystone / Stephan Scheuer Many retirees in Switzerland can continue to put money aside, with a majority also willing to bequeath the money they have saved. Specifically, 34% of the people surveyed in Switzerland aged 65 and over are building up assets instead of reducing them, according to a Swiss Life survey published on Wednesday. Some 44% said they spent about as much as they receive. The...

Credit Suisse Chairman Axel Lehmann expects 2023 and 2024 to be years of transformation for the bank as it seeks to stabilise after years of mishaps © Keystone / Michael Buholzer Credit Suisse is “definitely stable”, Chairman Axel Lehmann has told Swiss public television, SRF, adding that the embattled bank had seen a stabilisation in the outflows of client funds. The bank has reported sharp outflows as wealthy clients move assets elsewhere, while the bank...

Swiss ski resorts are considering reducing the speed of ski lifts among various measures aimed at helping save energy this winter. © Keystone/gian Ehrenzeller Swiss ski resorts are gearing up for their biggest winter season since the Covid-19 pandemic. But soaring power prices in the wake of the Ukraine war have resort managers scrambling to find ways to save energy. The first ski slopes opened in the Swiss Alps in early November thanks to fresh snow in...

Pure online brands are among the biggest winners this year © Keystone / Christian Beutler Online media replaced television as the most influential media genre in Switzerland for the first time in 2021, according to a study. Large brands such as 20 Minuten and Swiss public radio and television, SRF, lost influence in favour of smaller titles. In terms of importance for opinion-forming, print titles slipped to the bottom of the ranking, even behind radio and social...