Best bank – UBS
Best debt house – CSFB
Best equity house – CSFB
Best M&A house – CSFB
Best local partner – Lombard Odier et Cie
Given CSFB’s dominance in every investment banking product in Switzerland, it may seem strange not to recognize Credit Suisse as the country’s best bank. However, CSFB has had difficulties on a Europe-wide level, particularly in the regulatory sphere and suffered losses in its insurance arm, Winterthur. Though its Swiss investment and commercial banking franchise still appears to be going strong, profitability is lacking, with the investment bank experiencing particularly poor results last year. Following a capital-raising exercise this year, Credit Suisse may be back on track but more proof is needed. UBS, on the other hand, continues to go from strength to strength. As well as its impressive Europe-wide investment banking franchise, it offers Swiss corporates the full range of commercial banking services.
Despite the fact that the past year has not been happy for CSFB, which has watched its business dwindle across many areas of Europe, in Switzerland it still dominates the debt markets. It has a market share of over 35% compared with less than 10% for UBS, which is still struggling to build a meaningful debt business. In the corporate market, CSFB has worked for such companies as Nestlé, ABB, Novartis and Roche recently. For Roche, a e750 transaction in March to buy back out-of-the-money convertibles marked its first encounter with euro investors. CSFB also reopened the high-yield market for Swiss corporates in March, with a e165 million issue from Barry Callebaut Services. This was the first non-investment-grade issuer out of Switzerland since 1998. On the lending side, clients include ABB, for which CSFB arranged a $1.5 billion revolving credit in December and Novartis, for which it arranged a $900 million facility
It is difficult to argue with CSFB’s claim to be the best equity house in Switzerland this year. The bank has played a part in every significant transaction by Swiss corporates and financial institutions. In October, it co-led, with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and fellow Swiss bank UBS, the life-saving rights issue for Zurich Financial Services. The success of ZFS in raising the e2.5 billion rested heavily on the ability of the firm, and its banks, to convince investors of its story. ZFS took a gamble in telling shareholders that without the money its turnaround strategy would not work. That clearly paid off. CSFB raised money for a series of beleaguered companies last year including Swiss Prime Site, a real-estate firm that did a Sfr200 million ($153 million) rights issue and Swiss Life, which in December completed a recapitalization comprising a Sfr856 million rights issue and a Sfr250 million mandatory convertible. Data from Virtx and Autex ranks CSFB number one for trading volumes.
CSFB cements its expertise across the full range of investment banking products in Switzerland by winning best M&A house. It has worked on almost twice as many transactions for Swiss companies as its rival UBS and truly dominates the league tables for the past year. CSFB advised blue-chip companies such as Novartis, which sold its Ovaltine business to Associated British Foods and bought Lek, a Slovenian pharmaceuticals company. The bank also helped Nestlé to focus on its core businesses, by selling Peter’s Chocolate to Cargill and buying Powwow from Hutchison Whampoa. CSFB worked on the largest public-to-private transaction in Switzerland since 2000 when the Martin Hilti Family Trust decided to take Hilti private in a e600 million deal. Cross-border, it advised Barry Callebaut on the acquisition of Stollwerck from the Imhoff Group in Germany.
Lombard Odier is the best local partner in Switzerland and more correctly known as Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch after a merger in July 2002. It has been adviser in some of the most significant deals including the battle as Euromoney went to press between Zimmer Holdings and Smith & Nephew for Centerpulse. Lombard Odier is advising Centerpulse.
