Swatch CEO says no take-private plans underway as shares soar

SWATCH Group chief executive officer Nick Hayek said there are no plans underway to take the watchmaker private, although it’s something that “would be nice to do.”

The CEO made those comments to Bloomberg after an interview he gave to a Swiss publication on the matter contributed to the biggest intraday jump in its shares on record.

“I always said that taking the company private would be a nice thing to do and, at so ridiculous low share prices that we saw since quite some time, even more seducing,” Hayek said. “So the interview today says nothing new. Everything else is pure speculation.”

Swatch Group, whose watch brands include Omega, Blancpain and Breguet, rose as much as 16 per cent on Thursday (Sep 26) after Hayek was quoted in the interview with Bilanz saying the company is “thinking about what we can do,” to go private and exit the Swiss stock exchange. The stock was halted twice due to volatility.

Although Hayek has expressed that goal before, he has also long said he wasn’t willing to take on the debt needed to buy out existing shareholders.

Swatch shares have lost about 24 per cent this year after the company’s sales in China, which account for about a third of its revenue, fell sharply.

For the past year, Swatch shares have been shunned alongside other languishing luxury names due to worries around the lagging rebound in demand from Chinese consumers. Thursday’s jump in shares was due to a combination of factors, including optimism over Chinese stimulus and potential short covering as well as speculation over a possible delisting.

Shares out on loan, an indication of short interest, represented 19 per cent of Swatch’s free float as of Sep 24, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, making it one of Europe’s most shorted stocks. BLOOMBERG