Wednesday 15 July 2015

Tee hee. And give that man a pat on the back.

From the FT 9 October 2010:

Sir, The FT report on hedge fund managers moving to Switzerland (“Hedge fund shift costs UK £500m”, October 2) gives the impression that there will soon be a glut of empty offices in Mayfair and the City of London as hedge fund managers stampede to move to Switzerland.

In reality, this is not the case.

Frstly, immigration requirements in Switzerland are complex and not everyone from London will be eligible to work there. Secondly, for the principals of the business, relocating to a new country will be fraught with family and domestic considerations notably spousal consent, continuation of schooling arrangements for children, etc. Thirdly... the actual rate of tax savings on attributable non-Swiss earnings, on a marginal basis, is unlikely to be more than about 15 per cent [etc]

Joe Seet, Senior Partner, Sigma Partnership, London EC3.


From the FT, 12 July 2015:

Brevan Howard is moving some of its most senior traders back to London from Geneva, reversing a high-profile decision by the $27bn hedge fund to leave the UK and bucking concerns that the City’s status as Europe’s leading hub for the industry was under threat.

The decision comes as a number of other large hedge funds are also planning to expand or launch in the British capital, in a sign that international investors continue to gravitate to London.

Hedge fund managers and investors argue that low tax rates have failed to win over traders to the merits of life in Switzerland, with many leaving their families behind in London.

5 comments:

SumoKing said...

There was until recently a bi lateral free movement of people between the EU and Switzerland. Broadly all you do is turn up at immigration with an employment contract and they give you a 5 year residence permit.

That has been thrown up in the air by the "get rid of forrins" vote last year although broadly speaking the swiss view is to the tune that people from west if vienna are not that bad, so probably immigration is not a big issue for hedge funds.

What they won't like is that senior managers in a company or group of companies with a swiss HQ cannot receive golden parachutes (well done Novartis for epically taking the piss on this, causing a national referendum and royally screwing us all!). It's surprising how many companies move here on the assumption that this law doesn't apply to them for a host of reasons.

"Oh but we are listed in Croatia"
"1, who the fcuk does that, 2, Yeah you are very caught by this"

Mark Wadsworth said...

SK, thanks for background evidence. Top people, the Swiss.

SumoKing said...

well, so long as you don't want to buy a box of cornflakes on a sunday or bank holiday cause everything is shut

and they use invoices for everything, like everything, when I turned up and got a work permit I didn't pay anything up front, they posted me the permit (3 days later) with a bank slip

Mark Wadsworth said...

SK it was and possibly still is like that in Germany. Shops shut midday Saturday FFS.

SumoKing said...

something else which might be of interest to you, and which I only found recently is that rents appear to be linked to mortgage rates in some places.

So the interest rate has tumbled recently into negative territory and private rents have followed, of course if rates shoot up the rent shoots up too

Have not found out if this is just how things are done or if there is something in the code of obligations backing it