Europe

Long regarded as the jewel in the crown of Swiss telecoms, Swisscom is under pressure from growing competition and a saturated market. Swisscom shares have fallen by more than 20% since the peak of 2014 and by 7% since the beginning of the year compared to its direct competitor Sunrise, up 16% in 2016. The “blue giant” has certainly reached a size which reduces its potential for growth, but its revenues are stable, and its dividend of almost 5% makes it an attractive investment.

The EU Commission has imposed €13bn ( $14.5 billion) fine to Apple for back taxes owed to Ireland, enjoying therefore indirect state aid from Dublin. In spite of a tax imposed on the companies by 12.5%, according to Brussels reconstruction, Apple has managed to tick a levy of 1% on European profits in 2003 and then declined even to 0.005% at the end of the period under investigation, ie 2014. So far, the highest fine imposed by the EU was 1.4 billion to the French energy giant EDF.

Barclays completed the sale of the Italian retail branches to CheBanca !, controlled by Mediobanca. With this, CheBanca! double in size and exceeds the 20 billion in total deposits, taking a further step in the development process and in strengthening the asset management of the Italian families; thanks to the acquisition, it’s realized significant increase in the number of customers (+ 38% to 800 thousand), assets under management (+ 74% to € 6.8 billion), direct deposits (+ 27% to € 13.6 billion) and mortgage loans (+ 50% to € 7.5 billion).

The TTIP can be said definitively failed. In the opinion of Sigmar Gabriel, vice chancellor and Economy Minister German, "talks with the US are in fact failed because we Europeans, of course, must not succumb to American demands: nothing is moving forward ".
In an interview on German television ZDF, Gabriel added that "the negotiations with the US have failed de facto because we Europeans do not want to subject us to the US demands."

Russia and Iran tighten relations in oil field building together five platforms in the Persian Gulf; the deal, which is worth a billion dollars, also involves the gradual transfer to Iran of the necessary offshore technologies, and this "is a dream come true", as stated Ehsanollah Mousavi, managing director of Iranian company TODC.

The agreement was signed by the shipbuilder, russian Krasnye Barrikady and the Iranian company TODC: the project, for $ 1 billion, involves the construction of five offshore platforms in the Persian Gulf. According Ehsanollah Mousavi, CEO TODC (Tasdid Offshore Development Company), the agreement provides for the construction of an offshore platform every two years off the Iranian port of Khorramshahr, situated in the extreme south-west of Iran, on the mouth of the Arvand River (also known as Shatt ul Arab).

CEO Sergio Marchionne has denied the press rumors that were circulating at the weekend about possible news for the Magneti Marelli negotiations between the FCA and Samsung. The rumors that leaked out indicated that the vice president of Samsung Electronics Lee Jae Yong, would be moved to Europe to participate in the appointments to the Board of Directors of Exor, of which he is director.

Uber is acting in Switzerland as a regular employer and then can not escape the main obligations, in particular the payment of social security contributions: the analysis was made by Professor Kurt Pärli Basel and is the first assessment of law in this matter, executives Unia declared at a press conference this morning in Bern.

Uber, it was recalled, refuses to acknowledge his "taxi drivers" as ordinary wage earners inventing a fictitious independence system, while even the Suva has compared the company to a normal employer.

Negative rates bring more advantages than disadvantages in the Swiss economy. With this motivation Andréa Maechler, management member of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), defends the continuation of the strategy.

"The financial markets expect a further easing of monetary policy in Britain and in the euro zone, and even in the USA the increase in interest rates goes only slowly," she said in the interview published on "SonntagsBlick" on Sunday. SNB currently applies -0.75% rate on deposits stored with the central bank.