【Zurich, Swit】Noticed in Zurich: Half of the Swiss Stock Exchange Meets on Bahnhofstrasse

A stroll along Zurich’s premier boulevard is also a journey through the Swiss investment universe.

Architecturally, Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse is not so extraordinary. The commercial buildings in the historicist style are remarkable but correspond to the construction standard of about 120 years ago. However, as an editor at “Finanz und Wirtschaft” focusing on the luxury goods industry and real estate companies, one develops a personal relationship with the storefronts and magnificent buildings that characterize this upper-middle-class boulevard from the late 19th century.

Virtually every second building “belongs” to me, at least in the sense that I am responsible for reporting on the company behind it. Near the beginning of the street, viewed from the main train station, stands the Jelmoli department store. Its owner, Swiss Prime Site, will soon close it and reopen it in about three years with a smaller department store component and a new tenant, Manor.

Two listed conglomerates that I deal with almost daily are omnipresent on Bahnhofstrasse: Swatch Group and Compagnie Financière Richemont. To recognize them behind the shop doors, one must know the brands belonging to these two conglomerates – I have, of course, long since memorized them. And as an editor, one always has the share prices in the back of one’s mind (at the moment they are under pressure, but this is less due to Bahnhofstrasse and more due to declining sales in China).
With the business of the watch brand Omega, Swatch Group occupies a prominent place on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse.
From cheap watches at Swatch to legendary timepieces at Omega to the diamond jewelry of Harry Winston at Paradeplatz, Swatch Group can be found every few steps. On a walk along Bahnhofstrasse, one can almost view the entire display of the group in the shop windows if one wishes. The Grieder building at Paradeplatz also belongs to Swatch Group. One would like to know what they plan to do with the property once the fashion retailer Grieder moves out soon.

The shop windows of IWC, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Montblanc, in turn – all Richemont. However, the 20-billion-franc conglomerate would be almost nothing without its most important brand, Cartier. The retail business on the ground floor of the Münzhof – whose main function is as the headquarters of UBS – is large and, like many Bahnhofstrasse shops, has a doorman. With an image of exclusivity, which always includes a notion of security, this is part of it. The reluctance to enter the store is also part of it.
Cartier generates an estimated minimum of €10 billion in revenue, likely even more in the future, and thus significantly contributes to the possibility that investors may soon buy Richemont shares in large quantities again. Van Cleef & Arpels, Richemont’s second major jewelry brand, will get a new location between Paradeplatz and the lake next spring. Previously, this boutique housed the fashion brand Chloé, which also belongs to Richemont. But jewelry, as is known about Richemont, currently has priority within the group.
The Richemont brand Van Cleef & Arpels will receive a new branch on Bahnhofstrasse next year.
Many properties on Bahnhofstrasse are owned by Swiss Life – which I do not write about. But a whole series of buildings on Bahnhofstrasse belong to a company I am in contact with repeatedly: PSP Swiss Property. The real estate group is valued by investors because its “properties” are in such good locations. Depending on how one counts, there are about a dozen on Zurich’s most important shopping street. For example, the building at Paradeplatz, which houses the Hermès boutique. Luxury brands vie for such locations.

But what about the banks, one might ask? Well, I am not a banking editor. And yet, over time, one gets to know many of the bank conference rooms above the famous street from the inside. One meets there to talk about funds, stocks, and investment strategies. Sometimes also about luxury stocks and real estate titles.