Europe

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."

Zurich is the second city in Europe for percentage of residents happy of his employment, to make known is a study of the European Commission. Ranked the largest city in Switzerland exceeds metropolis likes of London (27th place), Paris (8th), Copenhagen (5th), with a lunsinghiero 83% of the population declares itself happy. Only 11% responded negatively to the survey, but in this case seems to be the cost of living, considered high, affect judgment.

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.

Dieter Behring’s trial begins today, Monday, to the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, and will last until the end of June. The financier Basel is accused of fraud for scam to trade and money laundering; defined the Swiss Madoff, he had damaged 2,000 investors between September 1998 and October 2004, promising to invest safely halt the capital that relied more speculative areas and the other half, to get more returns high. He ended up leaving a chasm of 800 million francs, because in reality the money of new clients was used to repay the previous ones and to fund his lavish lifestyle (up to 600,000 francs autoconcesso salary, watches and jewelery).

The outlook for the Swiss economy improved slightly in May: the barometer of the economic research center at ETH Zurich (KOF) stood at 102.9 points, 0.3 points more than in April (revised indicator from 102,7 to 102.6).

The figure is in line with forecasts: the analysts interrogated by the agency AWP betting on an index of 102.0 and 103.0 points. Since last February, the barometer is moving steadily above the long-term average: this suggests a continuation of the positive economic development in the coming months, the KOF said in a statement today.

The European Commission could create a task force to regulate virtual currencies like Bitcoin in order to avert the use in money laundering or terrorist financing.
Parliament’s proposal was approved Thursday, May 26, in a non-binding resolution with 542 votes in favor, 51 against and 11 abstentions. It will now be sent to the European Commission, which must examine it. From the outset, it must be said, the resolution proposes a variety of inefficiency risks or negative balance of the measure.