Big names reveal third-quarter results

Credit Suisse was one of the big names reporting in the past week Keystone

The third-quarter reporting season may be grinding to a close, but a couple of big names still shone on the Swiss business scene last week as they revealed their figures.

Swisscom said on Wednedsday that it continued to perform well in the third quarter but revenues would slow in the final three months of the year.

Operating income before interest, tax and depreciation rose 7.8 per cent to SFr3.44 billion ($2.07 billion) in the first nine months of the year.

Swisscom said in a statement that “in a stable market environment” revenue rose by 2.2 per cent year-on-year to SFr10.61 billion.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, reported a net loss of SFr299 million ($179.6 million) for the third quarter against a background of negative market developments.

The loss compared with a net income of SFr1.6 billion in the comparable period last year and a profit of SFr1.3 billion in the second quarter this year.

It was the first of Europe’s big banks to report a third-quarter loss. Its rival UBS last week announced a 56 per cent fall in its earnings to SFr903 million.

Barnevik departure

Boardroom manoeuvres also hit the headlines.

Percy Barnevik, chairman of Swiss-Swedish technology group ABB, unexpectedly stepped down on Wednesday. Announcing his departure, Barnevik said the company’s poor share performance had prompted him to leave.

ABB said that Juergen Dormann, a board member who is also chairman of the management board at pharmaceuticals group Aventis, would succeed Barnevik.

Private media in crisis

The Swiss publishing and broadcasting house Tamedia decided on Wednesday to close the loss-making TV3 national chain.

The announcement cited slack economic growth and legislation hurdles as reasons for closing the national television station.

The company said that it could no longer justify spending money on the channel to its own to its shareholders or justify planned investments in TV3 totalling SFr180 million ($108 million).

Its collapse followed the financial failure of Switzerland’s largest private TV station, Tele 24, which was bought along with its radio unit, Radio 24, by Tamedia in September.

Roche fine

The Basel-based healthcare group, Roche, was fined €462 million (SFr673 million) by the European Commission for its involvement in a vitamin price fixing cartel.

The European Commission announced a record fine of €855 million for eight price fixing cartels in vitamin products.

The two largest fines were the €462 million for Switzerland’s Roche and €296 million for German drug giant BASF for fixing the price of vitamins, costing European consumers billions of euros.

by Tom O’Brien