Switzerland

Switzerland’s central bank on Monday reported a net profit of 1.2 billion Swiss francs for the first half of 2017 as big foreign exchange losses weighed on earnings from its foreign investments.

The Swiss National Bank made a profit of 100 million francs from its foreign currency positions, as exchange related losses of 11.8 billion francs almost wiped out the earnings from bonds and shares it holds.
The institution’s foreign currency investments have ballooned to 728 billion francs, 12% larger than the entire Swiss economy.

UBS kept a cautious outlook on the second half of 2017 on Friday after it reported an unexpected rise in second-quarter net profit, boosted by higher earnings at its flagship wealth management business.

UBS said net income was 1.17 billion Swiss francs ($1.21 billion) during the second quarter, up from CHF1.03 billion a year earlier and far overshooting the average forecast in a Reuters analyst poll for 879 million francs. Operating income fell slightly to CHF7.3 billion from CHF7.4 billion a year earlier.

Swiss private bank EFG International expects to hit its target for attracting net new assets from wealthy clients in 2019, Chief Financial Officer Giorgio Pradelli said on Wednesday.

Zurich-based EFG, which bought Bank BSI last year, has a medium-term target of 3-6 percent net new money growth, applicable once it has completed the BSI integration.

The UBS Swiss consumption indicator rose to 1.38 points in June from a downwardly revised 1.32 in May, the Swiss bank’s economists said on Wednesday.

"UBS consumption indicator printed 1.38 in June, pointing to subdued growth in Swiss private consumption in recent months. Relatively weak growth in employment was much to blame for the lackluster number, however this was offset somewhat by robust new car registrations data and overnight hotel stays by Swiss nationals" the noted reported.

LafargeHolcim posted slightly better-than-expected second-quarter results on Wednesday as the world’s biggest cement maker sought to put a scandal over payments to armed groups in Syria behind it. It reported net income to shareholders of 787 million Swiss francs, up 96.5 percent from 400 million francs in the year-ago period.

The Franco-Swiss company reported adjusted operating profit of 1.735 billion Swiss francs ($1.82 billion) for the three months ended June 30, slightly ahead of the average estimate of 1.714 billion Swiss francs in a Reuters poll.

The fifth annual Global Retirement Index ranking from Natixis Global Asset Management has Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland holding on to the top three slots from 2016. The ranking creates an overall retirement security score for each country from 18 performance indicators that address finances, healthcare, material well-being, and quality of life. Countries are also ranked by those four sub-indexes. Switzerland has consistently topped the rankings since the index was launched five years ago.

Logitech International today announced financial results for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2018. The Q1 sales were $530 million, up 13% in constant currency compared to Q1 of the prior year, beating forecasts of $512 million in a Reuters poll. Logitech raised its outlook 2018 to 10% to 12% sales growth.

Net profit increased to $37 million, ahead of estimates of $26 million.

Assets under management at Julius Baer grew by 6 percent to 355 billion Swiss francs ($375.18 billion) in the first six months of 2017, the Swiss private bank said on Monday, roughly in line with analysts’ estimates. The private bank said it took in over 10 billion Swiss francs in net new funds from clients, one of the key business of the future.

The average forecast in a Reuters poll of five analysts was for the assets managed by Zurich-based Baer to grow to 358 billion francs. Adjsuted net income unexpectedly rose by 2 percent year on year to 404 million francs, ahead of the poll forecast for 373 million francs.