CHF

Julius Baer announces that it has recorded an increase in deposits of 6 billion, ie by 2% compared to the end of 2015. This progression must constantly increase the supply of capital and consolidation, 1 April 2016, the Italian management company Kairos that manages funds for about 9 billion. A contribution which more than offset the negative trend of the exchange rate fluctuations, primarily the weakness of the US dollar and British pound against the Swiss franc.

The figure divulged by Julius Baer enrolled in the fork of the forecasts of analysts who expected a mass under management of between 290 and 309 billion francs with a consensus at 302.7 billion.

The City of Lugano has decided to act on a request agreement with Almaty in view of a network collaboration with partners active in the area. The mission’s program provides, in fact, for each company present, a series of B2B meetings with potential Kazakh partners. Considering that in Lugano there is already a significant number of activities related to Kazakhstan in the most dynamic sectors, the agreement with Almaty is a good opportunity for the promotion of Lugano worldwide and serves as a support to the development strategies already in place at regional level.

Orascom, a company owned by Egyptian businessman Samih Sawiris, expects a loss in the first quarter of 2016 between 26 and 28 million francs. The figure represents approximately the entire loss of 2015, announced Monday the holding company that builds and operates real estate, especially in Andermatt (UR). The final figures will be announced on Thursday. In addition to the loss, we expect a decline in turnover from 17% to 20%.

GAM buys Taube Hodson Stonex UK (HRT), an investment company that focuses on a comprehensive strategy for action. On March 31, HRT ran a fortune of about 1.78 billion GBP or CHF 2.5 billion. In its statement Monday, GAM said that this transaction, the price is not disclosed, is in line with its strategy to complement organic growth with acquisitions and engagement teams.

Subject to customary approvals from supervisory authorities, the transaction should be finalized in Q3 2016. The HRT investment team, led by four directors Cato Stonex, Mark Evans, Robert Smithson and Ali Miremadi, then will move in the offices of GAM in London and strategies will be marketed under the GAM brand.

UBS Q1 profits fell 64 percent with weak numbers in all segments: wealth management – 40%, investment bank – 67% and corporate finance – 39%. The only bright spot is an increase in net new money which follows 2 consecutive quarters of outflows.

A profit of 5.7 billion francs in the first quarter of 2016, it was announced by the Swiss National Bank (SNB).
The gold stock has generated a profit of 4.1 billion. The gain obtained on the positions in foreign currencies amounted to 1.2 billion francs. The appreciation of the franc caused exchange losses 6.9 billion, has indicated this morning the central bank.

In the first quarter of 2015, the abandonment of the minimum threshold of franc / euro exchange rate had generated an appreciation of the franc and exchange losses on all the investment currencies in the amount of 41.1 billion francs.

Switzerland published its March Trade Balance this morning and this one was catastrophic. The figure came out at CHF 2.16bn vs CHF 4.02bn previously. Switzerland did not publish such a low figure since February 2015, so more than a year.

Nestlé published its results today. No major information came out of it. The results were better than expected, with an organic growth as high as 3.9%, above what analysts were expecting (3.6%) and a Revenue Internal Growth (3%) (i.e. a sales growth adjusted for takeovers, disinvestments, price fluctuations and currency) was also higher than the consensus (2.5%).