Crossair launches new shares on Swiss bourse

Crossair's former nominative shares were split at a ratio of 1:5 into new shares worth SFr50 each Keystone Archive

Crossair's new nominative shares made their debut on the Swiss stock exchange on Friday.

The new shares were launched at SFr50 but fell to SFr47.90 at the start of trading. The share price fell to a low of SFr42.50 before recovering a little to close at SFr46.

The SFr50 shares were launched to replace the “old” Crossair shares worth SFr250 each. Individual shareholders have been assigned five new shares to replace each SFr250 share held before Friday’s switch.

“Essentially, for one old share you get five new shares,” Thomas Hofmann, Crossair’s chief financial officer, told swissinfo.

Hofmann said the change in share price structure was made to streamline the company’s trading on the Swiss bourse and was not connected to the re-launch of the company as Switzerland’s new flag carrier.

“This was an old plan and has nothing to do with [the airline re-launch],” he said.

Under a deal hammered out last October between the Swiss government, banks and industry leaders, Crossair is due to take over the rump of the collapsed Swissair’s routes next March.

swissinfo with agencies