Switzerland

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.

Switzerland’s economic growth will stay below its potential this year and next, the government said. Output will expand 0.9 per cent in 2015 and 1.5 per cent in 2016, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said on Thursday, the Irish Times reported. Its previous prediction, issued in June, was for growth of 0.8 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. Economic growth has slowed after the Swiss National Bank gave up its cap on the franc eight months ago.

A Geneva prosecutor has closed a six-year investigation into a criminal complaint by Saudi Arabia's Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) against Maan al-Sanea and two units of his Saad Group, the prosecutor's office told Reuters. Family conglomerate AHAB and separate Saudi business empire Saad Group collapsed in 2009 and have since been battling in multiple jurisdictions over who was to blame for the issues which affected their respective groups, including the default on bank debts worth billions of dollars.

Prosecutors in Switzerland said on Thursday that they had ended an investigation into possible money laundering at HSBC’s Swiss private bank without filing any criminal charges, the reported. The Geneva prosecutor’s office said that it would not pursue charges against the Swiss unit and that HSBC would pay 40 million Swiss francs, or about $42.8 million, to settle the inquiry. “The investigation found that neither the bank nor its employees are suspected of any current criminal offenses,” HSBC said in a statement.

Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland were among six banks to be fined a total of $5.7 billion (£3.8 billion) by British and US regulators over allegations that they rigged the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, The Standard reported. The settlement, which also involved US banks JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citi, as well as Switzerland’s UBS, means banks have handed authorities around $10 billion to deal with the scandal. Barclays, Citi, JPMorgan and RBS also all pleaded guilty to a US antitrust violation.

Switzerland’s new “say on pay” rules could make it harder for investment banking stars at UBS and Credit Suisse to outpace their bosses in compensation, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. All the country’s listed companies face binding shareholder votes on executive compensation this year. But the Swiss public’s hostility toward its banks means they could be first in the firing line. The initial effect on UBS and Credit Suisse’s investment banking chiefs will be indirect.