Corporate

Nestlé today announced an agreement with the Franco-American company DBV Technologies for the development of a test to diagnose children with allergy to cow’s milk proteins.

DBV, with offices in Montrouge and New York, will receive from Nestlé up to 100 million euro on the arc of the different stages of research and new product registration, specifying the two companies said in a statement today. Allergy against the cow’s milk concerns 2-3% of infants and young children. The process of approval of the new test should be started in 2021.

The presidents and CEOs of the European Round Table of Industrialists, in a letter, urge the European Union raise in advance of the referendum on Brexit, scheduled for 23 June, which will decide on the permanence or otherwise of the United Kingdom to the EU.

The 51 CEOs, therefore, line up for "no". While respecting the decision of the British public, "we believe that a Europe without the UK would be weaker, as it would be weaker the United Kingdom itself outside of Europe."

Switzerland has eleven companies among the top 100 with the highest turnover in the world in the luxury sector, including two in the top ten: in second place Richemont, with a turnover of 13.2 billion dollars (about 13 billion francs ), and Swatch in fifth (9.2 billion).

The French giant LVMH is in first place in the ranking compiled by Deloitte, with 23.3 billion. Overall, the 100 largest companies in the sector worldwide generated sales of 222 billion in 2014, 3.6% more than last year.

In 2015 the German automotive group Daimler was ranked first among companies in Europe with the best operating results (EBIT), at EUR 13.2 billion (14.6 billion francs). Roche is in third place, followed by Nestlé. Novartis is eighth.

The silver medal goes to the Belgian-Brazilian group AB Inbev, with 12.8 billion euro. The swiss pharmaceutical giant full the podium with 12.7 billion. EBIT of Nestlé reached 11.4 billion euro, while the Novartis 8.3 billion. The turnover of large European companies fell by 4% between 2014 and 2015, while profits were 14% contracted.

Bayer is ready to re-launch the tender offer for Monsanto, putting on the table up to 66 billion dollars. The German giant is working on an upward revision of the offer for the American society, after the first rejection. The Bayer commitment on several fronts: in addition to outlining the new offer, the German big works with banks to develop financing for major acquisition in its history. Among the assumptions in the study there is a bridge loan of 40 billion dollars.

Martin Senn, 59-year-old and former CEO of Zurich Insurance, has committed suicide. This was announced by the same insurance company in a statement today.

"The Martin Senn family informed us that Martin committed suicide last Friday," the company said in a statement. The news of suicide was also reported by the Swiss newspaper Blick, citing sources close to the family. Senn had left, after 6 years, the Zurich Insurance driving last December 1, after the failed attempt of a takeover of the British company RSA.

The clothing group Vaudois Switcher, with stores also in Ticino, has failed, weighed down by three exercises in consecutive deficits and from 9 million losses in the first months of 2016,

The district court ruled on Thursday in Lausanne. According to the court "it is hard to deny the state of indebtedness of the company. There is largely in a state of insolvency". Now the company will have 10 days to appeal.

Microsoft and Facebook Join Forces to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The cable, called "TIDE", will be able to guarantee a bandwidth equal to 160 terabits per second and will extend more than 6,600 kilometers on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to allow Facebook and Microsoft to be able to more easily manage the huge traffic that generate many of their servers. The services are increasingly moving to the cloud and this means that in the future the data request will be increasing. They serve, therefore, next-generation infrastructure that can provide more bandwidth to ensure quick and easy access around the world.