All Swiss Stocks – Final edition
Condensing the watchlist and some general remarks:
As the ultimate climax (or anticlimax), my readers will find below a table with all Swiss stocks that I identified in round 1 as worth to “watch” including a second flag if they made it into my 20 stock “priority” watch list. Those who manage to read to the very end will also find my next target country for the “All Stocks” series 😉
Overall, I prioritized companies that are already in my portfolio or have the chance to become a member of my high quality “GARP” bucket at some point in time in the future or undergo a potentially value enhancing transformation process (ABB, Metall Zug, Holcim).
I am in general very positively surprised, both on the quality of the businesses that I have seen as well as the quality of the reporting of many companies. I always thought that Switzerland is mostly about banking and tax evasion.
This is speculation on my part, but I do believe that the high costs in Switzerland have forced many local industrial companies to focus on high value add activities and dispose everything that can’t be done competitively in Switzerland. R&D seems to be a big strength, maybe because of an attractive package for global researchers that want to relocate to a nice country.
I also found it interesting that many companies have quite solid balance sheets with only limited use of debt. In a country with a low tax rate, debt doesn’t have a big after tax advantage and many companies (correctly) focus on ROIC or ROCE instead of ROE which further diminishes the requirement for debt.
Of course, this has not been unnoticed by investors and Switzerland is clearly not heaven for Graham investors. However, for “Quality growth” investors, there is a quite decent choice of companies from a variety of sectors.
On the other hand, a little bit similar than in Germany, Switzerland seems to be somehow weak in Software and Internet related businesses. Even the “crypto valley” in Zug hasn’t produced that many listed DLT companies yet.
So this is then the final list, only those with Prio “YES” will be considered:
| Serial No | Nr. of Analysis | Name | Watch Round 1? | Prio | Description |
| 1 | 77 | ABB | YES | YES | Electrific. refocusing /spin-off story |
| 4 | 205 | ADECCO | YES | NO | Not top 20 |
| 12 | 88 | ALUFLEXPACK | YES | YES | Interesting product, OK valuation |
| 20 | 46 | BACHEM | YES | NO | too expensive |
| 27 | 105 | BB BIOTECH | YES | NO | not top 20 |
| 32 | 165 | BELIMO | YES | NO | Not top 20 |
| 41 | 169 | BURCKHARDT | YES | YES | Good company, inter. products |
| 47 | 82 | CEMBRA | YES | NO | Not top 20 |
| 55 | 14 | CPH | YES | YES | Interesting packaging sub |
| 58 | 171 | DAETWYLER | YES | YES | Very interesting company |
| 59 | 58 | DATACOLOR | YES | NO | Not top 20 |
| 64 | 143 | EDISUN POWER | YES | NO | too speculative |
| 70 | 9 | ENERGIEDIENST | YES | NO | no real growth prospects |
| 81 | 208 | GEBERIT | YES | NO | Too large |
| 83 | 55 | GLARNER KB | YES | NO | too little growth potential |
| 92 | 22 | HUBER+SUHNER | YES | YES | Deeper dive |
| 104 | 98 | KARDEX | YES | YES | Deeper dive |
| 110 | 125 | HOLCIM | YES | YES | Potential long term turn around |
| 113 | 133 | LECLANCHE | YES | NO | Too speculative |
| 114 | 103 | LEM | YES | YES | Electrification |
| 121 | 28 | MEDACTA | YES | YES | Interesting Medtech |
| 122 | 132 | MADARTIS | YES | YES | Interesting Medtech |
| 123 | 59 | MEIER TOBLER | YES | YES | Portfolio |
| 124 | 198 | METALL ZUG | YES | YES | Interesting transformation story |
| 125 | 64 | MEYER BURGER | YES | NO | Portfolio |
| 146 | 126 | POENINA | YES | NO | Not top 20 |
| 151 | 156 | RICHEMONT | YES | YES | Portfolio |
| 154 | 6 | ROMANDE | YES | NO | limited growth potential |
| 156 | 142 | SCHAFFNER | YES | YES | Portfolio |
| 159 | 4 | SCHWEITER | YES | NO | Covid one-off ? |
| 160 | 135 | SENSIRION | YES | YES | Interesting company |
| 162 | 95 | SFS GROUP | YES | YES | Interesting company, deeper dive |
| 163 | 79 | SGS | YES | YES | expensive, but interesting company |
| 177 | 168 | SWISS LIFE | YES | NO | Not attractive enough |
| 179 | 124 | SWISS RE | YES | NO | Not attractive enough |
| 183 | 191 | TEMENONS | YES | NO | issues with Mgt. Comp |
| 186 | 128 | TITLIS | YES | NO | Chinese tourism ? |
| 190 | 54 | UBS | YES | NO | No |
| 198 | 40 | VETROPACK | YES | YES | Old portfolio comp |
| 201 | 48 | VON ROLL | YES | NO | to unclear |
| 202 | 212 | VONTOBEL | YES | YES | potentially interesting |
| 203 | 120 | VZ HOLDING | YES | NO | not enough growth |
| 207 | 119 | YPSOMED | YES | NO | too expensive |
| 208 | 97 | ZEHNDER | YES | NO | Not clear if sustainable |
| 212 | 136 | ZUR ROSE | YES | YES | Portfolio |
Good bye Switzerland for now and hello….
Next country in line: Denmark !!
I have also chosen the next country to look at which is Denmark. Why ? One reason was clearly that it has only a number of limited stocks (something like 70 in total), so I can complete this hopefully within a few months in early 2022. The second reason is that I hope to find again some very high quality companies for my watch list. I own already two Danish stocks (Orsted, NKT) and I know a few that I had looked at in the past (Novo Nordisk, Coloplast).
Watch out Denmark, I’m coming……
value and opportunity 
Hello hello,
in retroperspective, you ran your analysis really at the height of swiss stock valuations.
Would be interesting to run through your top20 again now – some are really on sale …
Thanks for sharing so frequently 🙂
Which one do you like best ?
Denmark is an interesting pick. I look at them some two years ago. A little like the Swiss I think. Good quality, reporting and so on but different industry tilt than the Swiss. Will be interesting to see if the valuation is lower, I doubt it.
I received some feedback on Aluflexpack and its controversial Austrian majority owner. They go off the watchlist, Adecco goes in instead.
Simcorp…
Surprisingly 2 of my former employers made to the 2nd round :-). Yet, I do not see Holcim turnaround… as higher profitability would basically require going back to cement cartels. Or explosion in distribution costs, locally allowing price increases without competition pressure…
Considering the increased costs of fuels, I see even less turnaround….
But anything can be.
I think their idea ist to integrate vertically into higher value aggregates, along the path that SIKA has taken….
But let’s see, it is not my highest conviction watch position 😉
Come to think of it, Edward Chancellor’s book “Capital Returns” mentioned Swiss companies such as Geberit, Straumann, Sonova(Phonak), he also mentioned a bunch of Danish companies like Demant A/S, GN Store Nord, Coloplast, Novozymes. Maybe time to read his book again…
Kudos! I am very impressed with your patient, thorough, diligent approach. Best,Steve
Nice end of a great series and great choice of the next Country. Already looking forward to it in anticipation of a few names (that I will keep to myself for the chance of an unbiased look)