A Small Canton Scored Big With SNB’s Rallying Share Price

(Bloomberg) -- The canton of Obwalden sold all 184 of its shares in the Swiss National Bank, a rare bit of insight into the stock’s rollercoaster volatility last year.

Switzerland’s central bank has shares listed on the local bourse, though equity holders have only limited voting rights and get no say in monetary policy decisions. The share’s price more than doubled last year before ending the year up 6.7 percent, prompting questions about what was driving the move in the very thinly traded stock.

The canton executives of Obwalden, with a population of 38,000 in central Switzerland, made plans to reduce their SNB stake some time ago and last year’s price rally was considered an opportune moment, said Reto Odermatt, secretary of its department of finance. He declined to provide further details. The news was first reported by Finanz und Wirtschaft.

Switzerland’s cantons and cantonal banks sold a total of 988 shares in 2018, taking their combined stake down to 49.6 percent from 50.6 percent in late 2017, according to the SNB’s annual report. Yet because the law favors public-sector shareholders, they still hold the majority of voting rights.

Another notable investor to cut his stake in the SNB last year was Theo Siegert, a media-shy German businessman and professor. Nevertheless, he remained the central bank’s largest private shareholder at the end of 2018.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jan Dahinten at jdahinten@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss, Brian Swint

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