Zuercher Kantonalbank Acquires Swisscanto for $373 Million

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Zuercher Kantonalbank, Switzerland’s biggest state-owned lender, acquired the 82 percent of Swisscanto Holding AG it didn’t already own for 360 million francs ($373 million), the bank said in a statement today.

Swisscanto was jointly owned by Switzerland’s 24 cantonal banks until now. The deal, valuing Swisscanto at 440 million Swiss francs ($456 million) is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, Zuercher Kantonalbank said. The other cantonal banks will receive additional compensation depending on how much money their clients invest with Swisscanto or Zuercher Kantonalbank in the three years from 2016 through 2018.

“The simplification of the ownership structure should provide what was a common enterprise until now with a new perspective in an ever more competitive and challenging market environment,” Zuercher Kantonalbank said in the statement.

The takeover creates a group with about 250 billion Swiss francs of client assets. Zuercher Kantonalbank was declared systemically relevant by the Swiss National Bank last year and placed under stricter capital and liquidity rules because of the bank’s role in domestic deposits and lending.

The sale was backdated to July 1, Basler Kantonalbank said in a statement confirming the sale of its own stake of 11 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeffrey Vögeli in Zurich at [e-mail] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elisa Martinuzzi at [e-mail] Cindy Roberts, John Viljoen