Guy Deillon

As interest rates have risen, the number of M&A transactions has fallen. In the first edition of the "Legal Success" supplement to the journal Finanz und Wirtschaft, our associated partner Guy Deillon answers a number of questions relating to the rise in interest rates and its impact on M&A transactions.

In Switzerland, too, corporate bodies are increasingly being pressurised to position themselves - and this is often criticised

On the topic of exit strategy, the Zurich Chapter of the Entrepreneur's Organization hosted an exciting and worthwhile panel discussion for its members on May 11 at the offices of Bank Pictet. Our Associated Partner Guy Deillon represented Prager Dreifuss on the panel and provided information on the specific legal situation, including due diligence.

Next to him, experienced exiteers gave information about their cases: Elian Kool, Co-Founder of Netcentric (Exit 2017 to Cognizant) and Andy Schwarzenbach, Co-Founder of HITZBERGER (Exit 2017 to Migros). Jeremias Meier, Founder of Bexio AG (Exit 2018 to Mobiliar) moderated the subsequent discussion. Christian Binz from Pictet Wealth Management contributed the banking and investment perspective.

Admission AOS En raison des nouvelles restrictions d’admission des médecins, il devient plus difficile de reprendre un cabinet médical. Qui souhaite acheter ou vendre un cabinet ne devrait pas régler le transfert du numéro RCC, mais celui de l’admission AOS. Il appartient aux cantons de décider si et comment les admissions AOS peuvent être transférées. Un aperçu de la situation juridique actuelle.

An American law professor makes a proposal on how a withdrawal in panic of bank deposits could be curbed

On the evening of 19 March 2023, the Federal Council, accompanied by representatives of the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), as well as the respective chairmen of the boards of directors of UBS and Credit Suisse, announced the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS in the form of a statutory merger of the two entities, with a merger ratio of 22.48 Credit Suisse shares to 1 UBS share.

The Federal Council has taken two important decisions under emergency law (Art. 184 para. 3 and Art. 185 para. 3 of the Swiss Constitution), which deviate from existing federal law. The first, which has been widely publicized, is the suppression of the rights of the shareholders of Credit Suisse and UBS to approve the merger. The second, which initially went unnoticed, is the full write-off of additional equity capital (AT1) of Credit Suisse in the amount of 16 billion Swiss francs.

These decisions, along with other measures to stabilize the markets, were published in the Official Compilation of Swiss Laws on 20 March 2023 in a so-called Ordinance on additional liquidity assistance loans and the provision of default risk guarantees by the Confederation for liquidity assistance loans from the Swiss National Bank to systemically important banks (hereinafter the CS-UBS Ordinance), and an explanatory report was published by the Federal Council.

FINMA has recently issued new guidance, FINMA Guidance 01/2023, drawing attention to relevant developments in the area of climate-related financial risk management. In the Guidance, FINMA reiterates its expectation for financial institutions to establish an appropriate climate risk management framework based on recognised practices. Guy Deillon of Prager Dreifuss considers the new FINMA Guidance and its impact on financial institutions.

Sale to a private equity fund should be considered in succession planning.

Banks are now facing major challenges. Once the uncertainties related to the US program are resolved, a new wave of restructuring is expected. While large banks may be interested in acquiring new portfolios, it is mainly the small and medium-sized private banks that will have to fundamentally rethink their business model in order to maintain their profitability.