Category Archive: 3.) Investec

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Swiss EU immigration – unfortunately there is no plan B, says president in interview

2016-12-09

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2016-12-09

Switzerland’s plan to solve an immigration dilemma with the European Union could avoid being held up by another referendum if it gets strong support in parliament next week, according to Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann. A clear result in a final vote on Dec. 16 with the Swiss People’s Party, or SVP, in the minority could make it “delicate” for the group to push for another plebiscite, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Guy...

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Richemont cuts send shockwaves from Geneva to mountain valleys

2016-12-08

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2016-12-08

Exports of Swiss Watches Decline for 16th Month
Richemont’s plan to slash 210 watchmaking jobs in Switzerland is sending shockwaves from Geneva to some of the country’s remote mountain villages, the cradle of high-end watch manufacturing. In Le Sentier, a town perched in the middle of the Jura mountain range, straddling the border between France and Switzerland, some 400 people protested Thursday against plans to cut the workforce of Vacheron Constantin and Piaget.

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Over 4,000 studios for rent. Standing room only. Telephone included.

2016-12-07

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2016-12-07

Swiss phone box
The contractural requirement for Swisscom to provide every commune with a telephone box comes to an end at the end of next year. Late last week, the Federal Council adopted a new plan that will come into force in 2018. Internet subscriptions without a fixed phone contract should also be part of the new plan.

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Sunrise beats Swisscom on mobile network coverage

2016-12-03

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2016-12-03

Sunrise Network Performance
After seven years on top, Swisscom has been beaten by Sunrise. The German telecommunications expert and magazine publisher, connect.de and its partner P3, travelled roughly 7,000 km by car around Switzerland testing Swiss mobile networks. Tests were also made while walking and on trains. The results were published on Tuesday.

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Swiss stock market awaits result of Italian referendum

2016-12-02

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2016-12-02

SMI vs. MSCI World Week, December 02
Investors appear to be staying on the sidelines this week ahead of the weekend’s Italian referendum. Swiss stocks are set to finish the week lower, underperforming global equities as food giant Nestle and pharmaceutical heavyweights Roche and Novartis drag the index down. It’s been a volatile trading week across financial markets. Oil prices jumped almost 9% on Wednesday after OPEC members finally agreed a deal to cut production while upbeat US...

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Switzerland tops talent table despite high cost of living

2016-11-30

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2016-11-30

Swiss dog
Switzerland retains its number one spot in IMD‘s most recent 2016 World Talent Report. Unlike the other 60 nations in the study, which have seen their performance gyrate, a plot of Switzerland’s rank over the last ten years is a perfectly straight line. First ten years in a row.

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Swiss banks taking more risks to compensate for record-low interest rates

2016-11-28

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2016-11-28

Swiss Bank Risk
Swiss banks focused on property lending are taking more risks to compensate for the impact of record-low interest rates, increasing the threat of a real-estate bubble, Swiss National Bank Vice President Fritz Zurbruegg said.

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Swiss stocks down as the US dollar hits decade high

2016-11-25

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2016-11-25

SMI vs. MSCI World Week November 25
Swiss pharmaceutical and luxury goods giants pulled the Swiss Market Index (SMI) down again this week as investors dropped large cap firms. Global stocks however continued to rise, along with energy prices, on the promise of Trump’s reflationary administration. The US dollar headed further up, reaching decade highs.

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Steep price increases for Swiss Rail passengers despite deflation

2016-11-25

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2016-11-25

New Swiss Rail Uniforms
Today, Swiss Rail announced big price increases on some tickets and passes. The new prices will apply from 11 December 20161. According to the Swiss government consumer price index, average prices declined by 2.1% between October 2010 and October 20162.

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Shuttered Geneva offices show impact of lost banking secrecy

2016-11-24

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2016-11-24

Three years after Lloyds Banking Group Plc sold its private bank in Geneva, the only signs of life at the now-empty building are piles of cigarette butts and nutshells lying on its dirty window ledges. The riverside offices at Place de Bel-Air are a short walk away from the remaining private banks, hedge-fund managers and luxury-goods stores in the heart of the Swiss city. The locked entrance, where millionaire clients used to come and go, is a...

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Swiss watch exports have biggest monthly drop in seven years

2016-11-23

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2016-11-23

Swiss Watch
Shipments fell to 1.68 billion francs ($1.7 billion), the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry said in a statement Tuesday. The decline was much greater than expected and was made worse because October was the weakest month of last year, according to Zuzanna Pusz, an analyst at Berenberg.

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Switzerland risks power independence as nuclear vote looms

2016-11-23

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2016-11-23

Liebstadt Nuclear Power Station
The nation faces losing a third of domestic supplies and becoming a net buyer of power if it opts to start closing its five nuclear plants as early as next year. The Swiss will vote on Sunday and the anti-nuclear proposal has a slender lead in opinion polls.

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Swiss are the world’s wealthiest, says report

2016-11-22

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2016-11-22

Swiss Wealth
According to a recent report by the bank Credit Suisse, the Swiss are worth more on average than the residents of any other nation. The bank’s annual Global Wealth Report calculates average net worth per Swiss adult to be US$ 561,900 (CHF 567,500). Switzerland’s combined personal wealth of US$ 3.5 trillion represents 1.4% of the global total, while the nation’s population represents 0.1% of the global total.

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Geneva unveils big tax changes

2016-11-18

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2016-11-18

Geneva-tax-reform
After nearly ten years of European Union opposition to preferential company tax deals, Switzerland’s government agreed in 2014 to do away with such arrangements. Under current rules Swiss cantons can offer preferential tax rates to certain companies, mostly multinationals with most of their activity abroad. In Geneva, these special rates mean certain companies pay tax at a rate of 11.7%, while all others must pay 24.2%.

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SMI up on post Trump rally

2016-11-18

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2016-11-18

SMI vs. MSCI World
Swiss stocks continued to rise this week, in line with other global stocks thanks to a strong performance from financials which gained as investors weighted the prospects of higher interest rates in the US.

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China fines Swiss-based packager Tetra Pak for breaking monopoly rules

2016-11-18

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2016-11-18

Tetra Pak fine China
According to Reuters, following an investigation, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said, it found out that Tetra Pak violated some provisions in China’s anti-trust law and will impose a fine of 668 million yuan ($97 million) on Tetra Pak for “abuse of dominant market position”.

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Swisscom promises to put an end to unwanted sales calls

2016-11-18

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2016-11-18

Unwanted calls
Swisscom’s fixed line (remember those) customers will be given the option of blocking unwanted calls from 28 November. The service will be free and can be activated by checking a box online or by calling the Swisscom hotline (0800 800 800). Sunrise and UPC are expected to follow Swisscom by mid 2017, according to 24 Heures.

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Swiss National Bank won’t cut record low interest rate again, survey shows

2016-11-17

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2016-11-17

SNB negative interest
The Swiss National Bank, which has the lowest interest rate among the world’s major central banks, may be done cutting. SNB President Thomas Jordan and his fellow policy makers will keep the deposit rate unchanged at minus 0.75 percent until at least the end of the first quarter of 2019, according to the median forecast in Bloomberg’s monthly survey of economists. That would mean ignoring the International Monetary Fund’s advice to fend off inflows...

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Those with less are worth more in Schwyz than Geneva

2016-11-15

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2016-11-15

Freienbach in Schwyz
Last Friday, the federal Swiss tax office published the latest statistics covering the wealth and earnings of the nation’s more than 5 million tax payers – Switzerland has wealth tax, so net worth is included in tax returns. The highest percentage of the very wealthiest (CHF 10 million plus) lived in Schwyz. Geneva also made the top five cantons in this category.

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Swiss National Bank agrees to pay out 1 billion francs annually

2016-11-12

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2016-11-12

The Swiss National Bank (SNB)
Today, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced a new agreement with the Federal Department of Finance, to pay the Swiss confederation and cantons CHF 1 billion per year, as was previously the case. The deal will run from 2016 to 2020, according to an official press release.

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