Swisscom set to dominate pre-Easter trading

All eyes on Swisscom Keystone Archive

In what will be a shorter trading week ahead of the Easter holiday, results from Switzerland's largest telecommunications group Swisscom are set to dominate the business news.

Analysts are expecting Swisscom to reveal a net profit of around SFr3 billion ($1.78 billion) on Tuesday. The increase is due mainly to extraordinary gains such as the sale of its Cablecom division last year.

Analysts will also be keen to see how the company plans to focus its business over the coming year as competition in the domestic market increases.

Another major player in the Swiss telecommunications market is set to reveal final numbers on Tuesday. Bern-based telecom technology group, Ascom, expects net profits for 2000 to come in between SFr65 and SFr90 million.

The figures have been revised downwards because of higher investments and restructuring measures undertaken at the company.

Better results are forecast from textile group Rieter on Wednesday. The Winterthur-based group expects net profit to beat last year’s level. It has already announced an increase in sales of 20 per cent to SFr2.93 billion and said that orders are up 27 per cent to SFr2.96 billion.

This week also marks the winding up of the results’ season for last year, and the release of first quarter figures for 2001.

The Basel-based healthcare group, Novartis, is due to bring out its first quarter results on Thursday. The firm is Europe’s second biggest drugs company and currently has one of the busiest drug pipelines around, with five new products at the launch stage.

The company has warned that this could mean some pressure on profit margins as the cost of launching products will cut into profits at the early stage.

by Tom O’Brien