Goodbye Syngenta, Actelion; welcome Clariant-Huntsman

There is currently a lot of movement in the Swiss listed companies, especially among firms from Basel and active in the chemical industry. Syngenta, a middle weight of about 4% in the SPI, was withdrawn from the stock exchange following its takeover by the Chinese ChemChina. Actelion, about 2% of the market, has also just disappeared, following the takeover by Johnson&Johnson. Or more precisely, this withdrawal is not total, as part of Actelion’s research and development has been moved to a new company, Idorsia, which is listed since June 16^th. Idorsia starts as a small capitalisation, with a value of about 1 billion. Finally Clariant, following the merger with its American alter ego, is about to become Clariant-Huntsman. As a result, we believe the management of this other chemical company will move to Texas (at least physically, even if the official company domicile will remain in Pratteln). The shares, which will be listed in New York and Zurich, should increase to represent about 1.5% of the market, twice as much as today. This should not be enough for the company to enter the SMI, the circle of the largest Swiss capitalisations. The places vacated by Syngenta and Actelion have been occupied by Lonza, one more chemical company from Basel! And Sika, a chemical group, but which is domiciled in Zug.