Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Severin Schwan is also CEO of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche. Keystone / Georgios Kefalas Credit Suisse announced on Monday that Vice-Chair Severin Schwan would not stand for re-election. This follows a reported rebellion by large shareholder groups at the Swiss bank. “Severin Schwan, who joined the Board in 2014 and has acted as Vice-Chair and Lead Independent Director since 2017, has decided not to stand for re-election,” Credit Suisse said in a statementExternal...

Switzerland plans to open negotiations with Qatar over the potential delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies. The Alpine state is scouting for new energy suppliers, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finance Minister Ueli Maurer brought up the subject with Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi in Doha on Tuesday. Gas makes up roughly 15% of Switzerland’s final energy consumption and is mostly used for heating and cooking. Around half of this...

The war in Ukraine and consequent threat of energy insecurity is forcing many countries to reconsider their existing policies. The ripple effect has also reached Switzerland, which is already reassessing its gas supply for the coming winter. As the largest exporter of oil and gas combined worldwide, Russia represents a critical piece of the global energy puzzle. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the sanctions which followed have already impacted where oil and...

Data published on 17 March 2022 showed a 15.4% jump in Swiss exports in February 2022. The sharp rise in exports when combined with a 2.9% fall in imports led to a monthly trade balance of CHF 5.7 million. This is the first time in history that Switzerland’s monthly trade balance has exceeded CHF 5 million. Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.comIn February 2022, Switzerland exported CHF 24.0 billion worth of products while importing CHF 18.3 billion, creating a...

Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the Swiss ambassador to NATO, Philippe Brandt, explains the importance of Switzerland’s partnership with the alliance, which he views as perfectly compatible with Swiss neutrality. SWI swissinfo.ch: Has your role as head of the Swiss mission to NATO changed since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine? Philippe Brandt: We are living through a very intense time. Our role as a mission hasn’t fundamentally changed. We are closely...

German-born Stefanie Hessler, 35, will head the Swiss art space starting in May. Her appointment is part of several rearrangements in institutions run by the pharma billionaire Maja Hoffmann. Last October, the Swiss Institute, a non-profit contemporary art space in New York, announced that board chair Maja Hoffmann, one of the heiresses of the Roche pharmaceutical company, had been elected president of the board of trustees. Soon afterwards, in November, the former...

Big consumer brands are leaving Russia in droves but for many Swiss companies untangling ties isn’t that easy. Last week Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprüngli joined a chorus of brands like McDonald’s closing shops and suspending deliveries to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. The decision by Lindt & Sprüngli took some by surprise. The company’s CEO, Dieter Weisskopf, had said during its annual results call a day before, that it was planning to keep...

The Swiss economics ministry has downgraded its growth forecast for 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. But it still predicts a solid post-pandemic upswing. After a couple of years impacted by Covid-19, 2022 should yet see Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) grow by 2.8%, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said on MondayExternal link in a quarterly assessment – down from the 3% predicted last December. While the war will have an impact, Swiss economic ties...

The Swiss banks are hit by European Union sanctions against Russian clients. © Keystone/Christian Beutler Swiss banks hold between CHF150 billion and CHF200 billion ($160-$214 billion) in assets belonging to Russian clients, according to the Swiss Bankers Association. The president of the associationExternal link, Marcel Rohner, made the estimate at the group’s annual news conference on Tuesday. Overall in 2020, Swiss banks had assets under management totaling...

“No natural gas, no war” protestors in the capital Bern on Saturday ©keystone/peter Schneider Renouncing Russian oil and gas would have serious consequences for the Swiss economy, an expert from the KOF Swiss Economic Institute has told a Sunday newspaper. If imports were to be cut off, for example in the wake of tougher sanctions against Russia, Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) would fall by 3-4 percentage points, spread over two years, according to calculations...