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SWISS BUSINESS NEWS

 

 

SUMMER 2007

 

 

Top of the News

 

Switzerland follows Japan among the world’s most innovative nations according to Innovation: Transforming the way business creates, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Cisco. The Economist Intelligence Unit compiled a ranking of 82 economies based on their level of innovation from 2002-06.  The aims of the study were to analyze the importance of innovation, then determine which countries innovate the best and why.

 

Wins and Updates

 

Ohio based Diebold, Inc, a company providing integrated self-service delivery, security and automated banking systems, has announced the formation of its new EMEA headquarters in Geneva.  The headquarters will reportedly employ about 30 professionals in sales and marketing, finance, supply chain management, HR and IT.

 

Massachusetts-headquartered Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc, a semiconductor processing equipment manufacturer, has approved a plan to establish operations in Schaffhausen to improve the alignment of its legal entity structure and provide operational and financial services to all of its international locations.

 

 

Also from Massachusetts, venture capital firm Highland Capital Inc has announced the launch of it European headquarters in Geneva. "Europe offers a tremendous number of investment opportunities in the internet, information technology and life sciences sectors,” said Fergal Mullen, a partner in the company.

 

 

Intel, based in Santa Clara, CA, is joining Switzerland’s STMicroelectronics to form a new company to produce flash memory chips used in cellphones, digital music players and cameras.  STM’s president and CEO Carlo Bozotti will be chairman of the new company that will be headquartered in Geneva, have $3.6 billion in annual revenues and 8,000 employees worldwide.

 

 

New York-based financial services provider Cantor Fitzgerald has created a new office in Zurich

specifically to meet the demands of new and existing clients in the global cash equity and equity derivatives markets in Zurich and the rest of central Europe.

 

SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, the JV announced last December by Procter & Gamble and Inverness Medical Innovations, has been completed.  The new company has 160 employees, is based in Geneva and focuses on the development, manufacture and marketing of rapid at-home diagnostic products.

 

Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA, has agreed to acquire privately held HCT Shaping Systems SA in Cheseaux near Lausanne. HCT is the world's leading supplier of precision wafering systems used principally in manufacturing crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates for the solar industry. The acquisition is part of Applied's strategy to reduce the costs of photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing to make solar energy more competitive with grid electricity.

 

Due to an increasing sales market in Switzerland, IronPort Systems, an independent unit of Cisco Systems and a leading supplier of antivirus and antispam solutions based in San Bruno, CA, has opened a new sales agency in Zurich.

 

CHS Inc, a grains, food and energy company based in Minnesota, is opening a grain marketing office in Geneva. The new location will enable the company to enhance service and execution for its global customers.

 

Reverse Investments

 

One of the world’s leading healthcare groups, Basel-based Roche, continued its strategy of selective and targeted acquisitions of established companies with the announced purchase of NimbleGen Systems. The US company, based in Madison, Wisconsin, is a leader in high-density DNA micro-arrays.

 

 

EFG private bank based in Zurich has entered the Canadian market with the reported purchase of the Bull Wealth Management Group situated in Toronto.

 

 

Lonza Biopharmaceuticals, a division of Swiss drug firm Lonza, has announced the closure of its Baltimore operations effective next year.  The Baltimore site, previously known as Cambrex Bio Science Baltimore Inc, reportedly offered limited expansion space.  Instead, Lonza will spend $30 million to expand its existing manufacturing capacity in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

 

 

 

From The Foreign Desk

 

 

German logistics company FIEGE Group announced the construction and expansion of logistics centers in Italy and Switzerland by investing more than 100 million euros and created more than 300 new jobs at these locations. In Switzerland new distribution centers are in the Mitteland region as well as in Balerna by the Italian border.

 

 

Hosei University Tokyo, one of Japan’s leading private universities, has opened its European Research Center in Zurich.

 

 

ASC Telecom AG, a German company providing solutions to record, analyze and evaluate communications, is moving its Swiss subsidiary to new, expanded headquarters in Cham.

 

Alibaba.com, the online marketplace unit of the Chinese Alibaba Group, is establishing its headquarters for Europe and the Middle East in Geneva.

 

Also in Geneva is the European coffee trading operations of Olam International Ltd, a Singapore-based company specializing in the supply and trading of agricultural products and food ingredients.

 

 

UK-based language recruitment firm Euro London Appointments has announced the launch of a new office in Zurich to provide multilingual personnel across Switzerland. The company notes that big companies are setting up headquarters in Switzerland because they see it as a base for their European-wide operations.

 

 

Biopharmaceutical company TopoTarget, based in Copenhagen, has completed the acquisition of Swiss biotechnology company, Apoxis SA.  The purchase combines two emerging European oncology companies with promising product pipelines.

 

 

The Netherlands-based ingredients and additives group Barentz Europe BV has formed a joint venture with Swiss company Ernst Sander AG.  The new joint venture, to be known as Barentz-Sander AG, will be headquartered in Zug and will supply specialty ingredients and additives to the food, feed and pharma industries.

 

 

Bermuda-based reinsurer Montpelier Re is forming Montpelier Europa AG, a Swiss company to be based in Zug.  The company expects to focus on the Continental European and Near Eastern markets, starting business on or about September 1st.

 

 

Other News

 

 

Switzerland has been featured in recent reports focusing on foreign direct investment.  Here are two examples along with links that were active at the publication of this newsletter:

 

An article in the July 17 Financial Times reports that biotechnology companies have been flocking to list on the Swiss exchange over the past year, giving further weight to the country’s reputation as the natural home of the drugs industry. At the end of 2006 there were 137 biotech companies and 81 biotech suppliers in Switzerland generating sales of SFr 6bn ($4.99bn) according to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. The country has seen a constant flow of biotech start-ups since the early 1990s and the industry now employs almost 14,500 people. Industry observers say Switzerland is attractive on account of its highly-skilled workforce, low corporate taxes and lack of regulation. Biotechnology companies now account for about one out of every three initial public offerings in the country. Full story: www.ft.com/cms/s/fa1ca812-33fe-11dc-9887-0000779fd2ac.html

 

Ernst & Young in partnership with Oxford Intelligence have since 1997 produced an Annual Report about foreign direct investment activity in Europe. According to the report, Switzerland jumped to 8th place on the "Leader Board" with 136 FDI projects, compared to 93 the prior year (+46%). The report notes, "Switzerland jumped on the strength of its popularity as a destination for headquarter operations and to a certain extent, life sciences investments."  The report is available at www.eyeim.com . Over the last decade, the US has always been the largest investor in Europe. This trend continued in 2006, with the number of American projects indeed increasing, overall accounting for 30% of all FDI. German companies were 2nd, British 3d, French 5th.

 

 

As of June 1 Switzerland opened its labor market to the 15 original EU and 5 EFTA Nations by eliminating a quota system limiting companies’ abilities to hire needed staff on a permanent basis.  The action is expected to be a boon to companies requiring skilled personnel in excess of those graduating from Swiss universities and institutes of technology. Foreign-based firms as well as Switzerland’s own companies now can draw staff from among the best Europe has to offer.

 

More on Swiss leadership in biotech was carried in the July 19 issue of in-Pharma Technologist.com reporting that Swiss researchers have developed a method that combines bacterial capture, lysis and the purification of plasmid DNA to improve industrial-scale bioprocesses. The path-breaking research was published in an early view article in the journal Biotechnology Progress .  Further details are available at http://inpharmatechnologist.com/news/ng.asp?id=78322

 

Publicity and Promotion

 

 

Our 15th Media Tour held the first week in July focused on clean and sustainable energy and drew 27 journalists from 12 countries. Results of the tour will be posted in this and future newsletters.

 

 

Releases distributed since our last newsletter:

 

 

May 22 - Switzerland Leads Europe in Innovation According to an EIU Study

 

June 6 – Switzerland Opens Labor Market to 20 EU and EFTA Nations

 

June 25 - Swiss Precision Diagnostics Establishes Global Headquarters in Switzerland

 

 

News from Location Promotion Switzerland