Switzerland

Swiss commodities trader Glencore Plc is considering additional sugar and ethanol mills takeovers in Brazil, where it recently bought a second plant, to ramp up operations in the world's No. 1 sugar producer, three people familiar with the plan said on Tuesday. According to the first source, who asked for anonymity because the plans remain private, Glencore is seeking to add another mill to the portfolio of two it already has in order to expand its production cluster in Sao Paulo state. The person declined to elaborate on potential targets.

Glencore, the miner and commodity trader, has announced plans to repurchase up to $1.25bn of bonds as part of an ongoing plan to reduce debt and leverage, the Financial Times reported. The buy back is targeting bonds that mature in 2018 and 2019 with investors being given until the end of the month to tender their notes, writes Neil Hume in London. The world’s biggest miners are slashing costs and cutting their debt burdens after being shaken to the core by the worst price rout in a generation.

When the European Union pressured Switzerland to scrap tax breaks for foreign companies, Geneva had most to lose. Now, the canton that is home to almost 1,000 multinationals is set to use tax to burnish its appeal, the Irish Times reported. Geneva will on August 30th propose cutting its corporate tax rate to 13.49 per cent from 24.2 per cent, according to sources. For an interim period of five years, the rate will be a slightly higher 13.79 per cent, the sources said.

Swiss voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to guarantee an income to Switzerland’s residents, whether or not they are employed, an idea that has also been raised in other countries amid an intensifying debate over wealth disparities and dwindling employment opportunities, the International New York Times reported.

The authorities in Switzerland said on Tuesday that they had begun criminal proceedings against one of the country’s oldest banks, BSI, after allegations that it had laundered huge sums for “politically exposed” individuals linked to a scandal-plagued Malaysian state investment fund, the International New York Times reported. The Swiss attorney general’s office said in a statement that it suspected “deficiencies in the internal organization of the BSI S.A.

The Swiss commodities and mining company Glencore said on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell a 40 percent stake in its agriculture business to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $2.5 billion in cash. The deal is the latest move by Glencore to reduce its debt by selling assets. The company’s stock has been under pressure in recent months as analysts and investors have expressed concern about the company’s debt load and about weakness in commodities pricing.

A Belgian magistrate judge is investigating whether the Swiss bank UBS engaged in fraud, money laundering and other crimes in an effort to help wealthy individuals avoid taxes, the Brussels prosecutor’s office said on Friday, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. UBS is suspected of having directly approached Belgian customers, without going through its Belgian subsidiary, to encourage clients to engage in transactions meant to evade taxes. UBS acknowledged the inquiry, but it said little more.

Concerns about the financial health of the commodities company Glencore have receded after its banks queued up to take part in a multi-billion-dollar debt restructuring, The Guardian reported. Glencore said its 37 main lenders offered up to $8.4bn (£5.9bn) of loans, some $3bn more than they had previously made available to the company. The offering was scaled back to $7.7bn and the refinancing process will be opened up to a further 30 banks in the second quarter of the year, potentially taking the total above $8bn.

Switzerland's Banque Heritage said on Wednesday it would take on client assets from wealth manager Bank Hottinger, which regulators put into bankruptcy last month, Reuters reported. The agreement is expected to be among a host of deals and closures in the Swiss banking industry, as an international crackdown on tax avoidance and costly regulation put pressure on banks, many of whom had relied on Switzerland's bank secrecy rules. Consultancy KPMG has estimated the number of Swiss private banks will fall to fewer than 100 in the next three years from around 130 now.

The ailing mining and trading giant Glencore has intensified efforts to slash its $30bn (£20bn) debt pile by putting copper mines in Australia and Chile up for sale, The Independent reported. Glencore said it was ready to spin off the Cobar mine in New South Wales and the Lomas Bayas mine in Chile’s Atacama desert, following “a number of unsolicited expressions of interest for these mines from various potential buyers”. Citi analysts put a potential $1bn price-tag on the two mines, based on a long-term copper price of $6,200 a tonne.