Now that the No. 3 Swiss bank has acquired control of shareholder activist Martin Ebner’s Vision funds, Vögeli says, “people are starting to notice that we want to do more than simply extend mortgage loans.” ZKB, with roughly $13 billion under management, took over the $2 billion-in-assets funds from Ebner’s beleaguered BZ Group as part of a debt restructuring.
But Vögeli, who served on the executive board of the aristocratic Bank Vontobel -- where Ebner was a fellow director -- has a more conservative philosophy than the populist portfolio manager. “Martin Ebner wanted to concentrate on just a few stakes because he hoped to influence management decisions with the Vision funds,” Vögeli says. “We will significantly broaden the number of investments in these funds.”
Ebner, of course, scored significant victories in his shareholder campaigns. He helped drive the merger that formed UBS and pushed conglomerate ABB to demand that ex-chairman Percy Barnevik return part of his vast payout.
Vögeli, by contrast, is no shareholder activist. “When we don’t like what management is doing, we’ll simply sell the stock,” he declares.
So can Swiss CEOs breathe easier now that ZKB rather than Ebner controls the Vision funds? Not necessarily. Ebner, through other investment vehicles, still holds 9.7 percent of ABB and nearly 5 percent of Credit Suisse.
