Richemont announces that its sales for the five months ended 31 August 2010 increased by 37 per cent at actual exchange rates. At constant exchange rates and excluding the impact on sales of the acquisition of NET-A-PORTER.COM in April 2010, sales increased by 22 per cent. Link: Click Here

Swisscom has decided to submit, through its subsidiary Swisscom Italia, to the remaining shareholders of Fastweb, a public takeover offer on all outstanding shares of Fastweb, representing 17.918% of Fastweb shares capital for an offer price equal to EUR 18 per share. Swisscom is looking to acquire all the remaining minority shares in Fastweb and to delist Fastweb from the Milan stock exchange. The total purchase price is EUR 256 million. Link: Click Here

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Lonza today announced that they have entered into a new agreement under which Lonza will support the ongoing development of GSK’s biopharmaceutical pipeline by supplying manufacturing capacity for five early stage monoclonal antibodies. Link: Click Here

Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SIX:ADXN) announced today that it has been awarded a $900,000 grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) to help fund a Phase II study of ADX48621 for the treatment of Parkinson's disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia (PD-LID). Patients with PD can live 10-20 years after diagnosis; however, LID is a leading cause of disability in this growing patient population. Link: Click Here

Julius Baer Group Ltd. will propose Heinrich Baumann, former CEO of HSBC Guyerzeller Bank Ltd., for election as a new member of the Board at the next Annual General Meeting on 7 April 2011. Heinrich Baumann has gained extensive financial expertise during his career of more than thirty years, working in various key functions in the wealth management and financial industries in Switzerland, North America and Asia. Link: Click Here

3S Swiss Solar Systems installs integratedproduction line in record time. 3S customer MSR Malaysian Solar Resources is successfully producing highly efficient, TÜV certified solar modules with the first module factory in Malaysia. Link: Click Here



Economy
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Switzerland's economic growth is set to slow from its recent very dynamic pace. Credit Suisse economists attribute this to the fact that global fiscal packages are gradually nearing an end, and that monetary policy is increasingly reaching its limits. Private demand has been unable to fully compensate for these weakening stimuli. This is compounded by the fact that the long-term repercussions of the financial crisis will continue to impact on the real economy in the coming year.  Link: Click Here


In August, the Swiss unemployment rate (sa) remained at 3.8%, unchanged from the previous month. Unemployment stood at 149,364 from 150,859 a month ago. Against the backdrop of weakening sentiment indicators, slower growth in the second half of this year may already foreshadow its effect on the domestic labour market - that is a slowing down of the decline in the unemployment rate. We continue to expect the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to keep rates (currently the 3m Libor target rate is at 0.25%) unchanged at least until the second half of 2011. Link: Click Here