Trends And Developments Switzerland

A Busy Year for M&A

2017 was a strong M&A year for Switzerland. Apart from the record year of 2014 with over 400 transactions involving Swiss companies, there have not been as many transactions in Switzerland in the past ten years. The overall transaction volume slightly decreased compared to the previous year, but was still remarkable, at over USD100 billion. If the planned multibillion-dollar merger between the chemical giants Clariant and Huntsman had taken place, the transaction volume would have reached the level of the previous year.

Activists Playing a Key Role With Limited Instruments

The failed merger between Clariant and Huntsman shows that shareholder activists are still active in Switzerland. The transaction, which would have been structured as a crossborder reverse triangular merger creating a leading global speciality chemical company with a dual listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), was prevented by