Swatch stocks gain again as CEO says delisting speculation nothing new
ZURICH, Sept 27 (Reuters) -Shares in Swatch Group UHR.S made further gains on Friday on speculation the Swiss watchmaker could be taken private even though CEO Nick Hayek played down his earlier comments, saying there was nothing new on the issue.
Shares in the maker of Omega, Tissot and Longines watches jumped as much as 16% on Thursday after Swiss magazine Bilanz published a preview of an interview with Hayek.
Hayek, whose family group controls Swatch via around 43.3% of the votes and 25% of the share capital, said he favoured taking the company private - pushing up its shares which had previously lost 31% in value this year.
On Friday, the shares rose again, and were up 2.1% in late morning trade, even after Hayek put out a statement on Thursday afternoon saying the possibility of quitting the stock market was not a new idea.
"We have always said it would be nice to take the company off the stock exchange, and it would be all the more tempting given the ridiculously low share prices we have seen for some time," Hayek said in his statement on Thursday.
"In that respect, today's interview contains nothing new. Everything else is pure speculation."
In the interview with Bilanz, Hayek said he did not measure Swatch's performance by its share price, referring to the stock market as a "casino."
While Swatch did not have to leave the market, it would "certainly be an advantage," he told the magazine.
"We have no time pressure, because the company is not threatened by the situation on the stock market," he said. "Legacy is not an issue," he said. "But yes, we are thinking about what we can do."
Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said it could make sense for Hayek to take Swatch private. The company currently has a market capitalisation of 9.06 billion Swiss francs ($10.73 billion), according to LSEG data.
"Swatch's brands have substantial potential, and the changes
needed to improve the business could be better executed away from the glare of the public markets," said Solca, noting that Swatch appeared to be a reluctant market participant.
"Paying existing external shareholders a takeover premium could be a more attractive option for the Hayeks," added the analyst.
($1 = 0.8446 Swiss francs)
Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Susan Fenton
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
